Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Monday, 8 March 2021

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union

Cross-Border Healthcare Directive: Discussion

Photo of Mark WallMark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our three guests. It is very telling, as the Chair has said, that the previous speakers described the scheme as brilliant. Great credit goes to Mr. Quigley, Mr. Bright and PDFORRA for setting up PMAS. I was very interested in Mr. Bright's personal stories because at the end of the day that is what this is all about, helping people as often as we can, which is what we all set out to do in our daily lives.

My first few questions are for Mr. Quigley and Mr. Bright. How many of the Defence Forces personnel are waiting or are afraid to proceed with the scheme because there is only a 12-month lifecycle? Is there a waiting list of personnel? If so, how many people are on the list?

Mr. Quigley made the very important point that the commanding officers of the Defence Forces are very much behind this initiative. It is great to see buy-in by commanding officers and serving personnel and their collaboration to get serving personnel back into service as quickly as possible. Was that the case in the early days? Did the commanding officers always see the benefit of the scheme or is it only since hearing the testimonials, as Mr. Bright has described for us recently?

It was a great idea for PDFORRA to include family members. The initiative is what makes PDFORRA a great organisation; not alone does it try to help its members but it also tries to help family members. That goes to the core of what PDFORRA stands for in my personal opinion. Mr. Quigley mentioned that PMAS was started with €150,000 of credit union funding from the organisation's own credit union. How much money has been involved or is going through it at the moment? How much more investment has been received in setting up and administering the scheme?

Mr. Quigley has mentioned that very few people help out with the scheme at the moment and it is just himself and one or two others. Can he please let us know his vision for the future growth of the scheme?

Today, we have heard about the Northern Ireland planned system which sounds good. I have no doubt that we need to place it on a legal footing as soon as possible. Notwithstanding what has been said by the Chair, because it is very important that we acknowledge there are shortcomings in our health system and we all know them, PMAS offers its members a solution to their problems. I have asked previous speakers whether they saw a problem with PDFORRA proceeding with PMAS to which they have answered "No" in addition to describing it as a brilliant system. Do the witnesses see problems with this continuing, aside from it not being on a legal footing of more than 12 months? Have they seen anything worrying in the paperwork for the new system aside from it just running until 31 December?

I thank Mr. Regan and the staff of Kingsbridge Hospital for the work that continues to be done. It is very telling that 1,300 people have travelled from counties Cork and Kerry to avail of services. I have to say with the greatest of respect that it is unfortunate that people must travel but that is what is wrong with the Irish healthcare system and, as the Chair has said, that is an argument for another day. I ask Mr. Regan to convey our thanks to all of the staff for the terrific work they have done for the people who have availed of the cross-border directive.

Finally, we have had a brilliant discussion and I want to put on record my thanks to PDFORRA and to all of the staff and Mr. Regan at the Kingsbridge Hospital.

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