Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will begin where Deputy Richmond ended, on the topic of health competencies. That was the reason, I was going to say excuse, given for the slow initial response at EU level to the crisis.

From the data and polling Ms O'Connell presented, health competency has impacted to varying degrees but uniformly negatively on people's image of the union. Even where there is no formal health competence, and as a former Minister for Health, I know there is no health council as such, there must be a provision for common action to face a common emergency. We need to address that.

These questions are mainly for Mr. Kiely. We are now in the second wave of this pandemic. Last night places such as Liege have been presented as the new epicentre. Germany has said it will take some patients if the acute hospital system in Belgium is overwhelmed. Who is co-ordinating these things now or is it ad hoc? Is it for individual member states to act as good neighbours or is there now some sort of pan-European co-ordination on these matters?

Ms O'Connell also mentioned the stability and growth pact relaxation or suspension. As someone who had to grapple with the stability and growth pact in the last crisis, that is a welcome development, but how long will that last? I am interested in Mr. Kiely's perspective. We need to rebuild even after the virus is defeated. That will mean economic supports and the capacity to do that might be outside the scope of the very narrow stability and growth pact we entered into.

One of the big issues around providing adequate health resources now and the future is staffing. Ireland's issue is less the provision of ventilators but the staffing of ventilators. The common practice is that every European country acts as an independent entity in the recruitment of health staff. Is this something that must be examined from a European perspective? We seem to cannibalise each other. For example, the last time we went on a massive recruitment campaign for nurses, we looked at South Africa. South Africa, being depleted of nurses, looked to Kenya which then looked to its neighbours. It was always one wealthier country cannibalising the next down in the tier. Do we need to have a pan-European staffing response? Is there any scope in that?

I was interested in Mr. Kiely's comment on the establishment of new European agencies in the health sphere and biosciences. What is the status of that?

Ms O'Connell referred to the relaxation of state aid rules in terms of domestic routes in advance of Brexit. The relaxation of state aid rules are of little benefit if the domestic government does not take them on. It is a discussion for a different forum. We have gross incapacity in terms of direct links to continental Europe and being reassured by those who are already providing it is cold comfort for me.