Mr. John Swords:

As we said last time, we were carrying out extensive work on investigating the supply chain of our medical devices. We spoke of risk earlier. We examined areas of risk and what might cause problems. We looked at what was manufactured in the UK, what is distributed through the landbridge and whether there are alternatives. There was also the matter of notifying bodies, which was the critical area that was highlighted as a red risk. If it fell under that, we were very concerned. We have worked with the Department and the HPRA on mitigating against those risks and seeing as we go.

The medical devices question is enormous. Worldwide, there are 600,000 categories of products. One can imagine the amount of items which fall under that. Our area covers approximately 2 million items in 39 categories across 274 companies. We are working quite a lot on communications. There have been many communications with companies in conjunction with the HPRA and the Department and we also meet them face to face. We are now at our third iteration of meetings. Yesterday, we were with 70 companies in Galway and had a good engagement around products which we consider to be at risk because of notifying issues. As we went through the risks, we honed down on areas. We received assurances that the companies were aware that this was coming and that Brexit was very serious. It took a little while for them to understand the depth and extent of the work that has to be gone through. We pestered them with communications and we compliment them on staying with us and remaining patient with us in respect of all the questions we asked of them. It should be noted that the response from industry and from distributors has been fantastic. When one considers the effort made by the Department, the HPRA and ourselves in the HSE in our work every day, it can be mapped with the co-operation we have received from the manufacturers and distributors. It has shown a great unity to ensure there will not be risks that affect patient care.