Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This mechanism is of particular interest to me. It has not gotten anywhere near the level of discussion other elements of the process have and yet we will have to live with these mechanisms for a very long time. It is important that as Brexit slips off the agenda Ireland is still front and centre because we have the most to lose. The mechanism is still in the process of being established and we will watch to see how things pan out.

Last July, this committee produced an interim report but we did not touch on this area. I am very keen that we include this area in our final report before the end of the year because it is a crucial element of our work.

As no other members are offering and we cannot make contact with Senator Ó Donnghaile, I thank Mr. Karl Gardner, Ms Maeve Collins and Mr. Deirdre Farrell from the Department of Foreign Affairs for coming here. The clerk to the committee will forward a copy of our final report to them and we hope to publish the debate in December before we go into recess. I wish Ms Collins the best of luck and wish everyone else the best of luck with their work. It is going to be a busy few days and few weeks for everybody. Obviously we hope that any issues are resolved and move forward to where we want them to be.

The date of the next meeting is Thursday, 14 October, and it will commence at 3 p.m. in the Seanad Chamber. A further meeting will take place at 12 noon in Committee Room 4 on Tuesday, 19 October when we will meet officials from the Department of Health and the HSE to discuss the cross-border healthcare directive. For the second hour of the meeting, we will have witnesses from Medicines for Ireland who will discuss the supply of medicines and medical devices post Brexit.