Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I did not hear the Chairman's opening remarks this morning at the recommencement of our meeting but I apologise to our guests for the delay in meeting them. I hope Mr. Breslin will convey my good wishes to Deputy Fitzgerald on her appointment as Minister for Justice and Equality. While that is a very exciting challenge for her, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs will greatly miss her stewardship and her natural understanding of and passion for the issues involved, which she has demonstrated over the past three years. She has been an excellent first holder of that portfolio in Cabinet. I wish her well in her new responsibilities. I wish the new Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Charles Flanagan, well in his new position.

I do not intend to go into this review in any significant detail. I thank Dr. McLoughlin for his presentation. What is the status of the first reading agreement on protecting citizens from serious cross-border health threats, such as pandemics and other serious risks? I want to know because I live in a border area. First reading implies commencement of a process. If the information is not immediately available I will fully understand, but if possible can Dr. McLoughlin indicate where it is now? What will the timeframe be for the full implementation of the intended regulation? Perhaps it is in place but the presentation we heard does not suggest that.

Dr. McLoughlin recognised the Minister's personal commitment to the development of the general approach to the directive on tobacco products in the Council in June 2013. It is also fair to acknowledge that significant work was done by the Department's efforts and those of the Secretary General. Political voices require the shared commitment at least of officers of the respective Departments. This is an area of shared concern and intent so I say well done across the board. I would be interested to hear any further comment on this directive.

We are still addressing issues here regarding plain packaging, which is an outworking of that commitment. I would welcome further elaboration on this.

Did the March 2013 meeting of the 22 Ministers who discussed, among a number of other issues, children with complex developmental needs, including autism, produce a report, paper or conclusions? Many members of this committee are very interested in the area of developmental need in children and are anxious to have access to information that might be shared from the engagement. Is it possible to indicate if there is even an executive summary of the key areas of consideration? My colleague members of the committee and I would very much welcome it.

In May 2013, the European Commission director general for research and innovation hosted a high level expert conference on brain research and health care which marked EU month of the brain. I am particularly interested in deep brain stimulation, DBS. Was it part of the focus and address of the conference? DBS procedures are not available on the island of Ireland and we should not be surprised that several dozen people, North and South, have to leave this island annually for access to a developed DBS procedure. Has it been addressed? Is there anything the witnesses could add to it? This committee hopes to explore the prospects of opening up opportunities to access DBS on this island.

In the conclusions from the meeting chaired by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, on 16 May 2013, the second bullet point refers to the implementation of the youth guarantee. Mr. Breslin referred to it again in his address. Could he give us an update on where we are in the full implementation of the youth guarantee, a very important measure which I would like to be fully implemented?