Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 27 June 2019

Public Accounts Committee

Health Service Executive Financial Statements 2018
2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Department of Health
Chapter 16 - Control of Private Patient Activity in Acute Public Hospitals

9:00 am

Mr. Jim Breslin:

We have it on stand-by. We had it on stand-by for the end of March. It involves a reciprocal healthcare arrangement. It is provided for in the legislation we have introduced through the Houses. There is a reciprocal health care arrangement between ourselves and the UK. This means the entitlements that people currently enjoy as a result of the UK being an EU member state will survive a no-deal Brexit. The reason is that we have a common travel area going back many years. We are going to be able to continue to have the flow of people, labour and tourists, between the jurisdictions. We have also built in provisions such that we have the ability to operate the cross-border directive. The UK has said that it will facilitate this. If people want to go to a hospital in Liverpool, then the Irish taxpayer can pay for it. I am uncertain whether the UK will want to reciprocate and send people to Ireland, but we will do it in that direction.

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