Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I say thanks and hello to Mr. O'Connor, who I used to work with. I have two more general questions. We are looking at the question of Brexit more widely. One is about the import of medicines of medical devices from the UK or through the UK using the land bridge. Have Brexit and the challenges we are facing in our ports had any impact on specific medicines?

Are there any concerns on the part of the Department or the HSE around specific medicines or medical devices? Are measures in place to address any potential shortages there? I know there was certainly some concern in advance of Brexit that this might happen.

Last week, the committee met the Data Protection Commissioner. I have expressed concerns that we will have a data adequacy decision quite soon. In the short term, it looks like the EU and UK will operate the same data regime. The concern would be if the UK diverges from the general data protection regulation, GDPR, or a GDPR-friendly regime around the sharing of medical data. This obviously is applicable where somebody living in the South might have his or her GP in the North, or vice versa. Are there any concerns on the part of the Department, particularly with regard to a scheme like this where there may be questions around data security and data storage? What measures should we put in place should we see a divergence in data?