Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. The figure of 24 seems very low to me. Is it the case that not every individual is counted under the cross-border health care heading? For example, is there an arrangement where someone in a hospital in Dublin goes straight to the UK because it is an urgent matter? I have dealt with a number of cross-border health applications. Could it be the case that figures are missing that have not been assigned under the cross-border health care heading? I had medical treatment outside of this country and I did not have to deal with the HSE at all. I did not get a bill from the UK where I had received the treatment. Is it the case that there is a far higher reliance on the UK than we realise, especially given that medicine has become so sub-specialised?

My second question relates to people living in this country who have retired here from the UK. What will that mean within the health service once the UK leaves the EU? What arrangement will we have in place in such a scenario? As a corollary, what about retired Irish people who now reside in the UK, whose children, for argument's sake, have emigrated there? Such people get an Irish pension and have never worked in the UK. Where will they fit into the arrangement and have we considered the issue of medical treatment? It has occurred in many families that parents have moved because their children are all in the UK.

Much of the scrutiny for training bodies, especially in respect of medicine, is UK-based. Given that the population is very small here, the UK body is often the governing body for qualifications. In some areas of Irish medicine, as few as 20 people are specialists in a particular area. How do we see that working from now on? Will the same recognition levels be in place or is it expected that they will change once Brexit occurs?

My final question relates to recruitment, especially of doctors. Reference has been made to that already. We are very much reliant on doctors who initially come from outside of the European Union to the UK where they work for two or three years and then come to Ireland. Is it expected that Brexit will have an effect on that flow of doctors? At any one time we have more than 4,500 doctors working in this country who are not Irish graduates. In fact, a large percentage of that number are not even EU graduates. If we then add in those who are UK graduates, the 4,500 number changes as well because we have many such doctors who are working in the Irish system. We have approximately 18,000 registered doctors. How do we expect the situation to change in the next few years, especially once Brexit occurs?