Mr. Fergal Goodman:

I concur with Deputy Kate O'Connell on the issue of the supply of drugs and medicines. It is one about which we are concerned and it has been identified by both the HSE and the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA. Ireland is a small market. There are a number of risks, one of which is that products are packaged and labelled for use in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Malta, countries in which English is spoken. A common supply chain is operated. If the United Kingdom was to be carved off, potentially we could find that we would no longer be part of the bigger supply chain that would include the United Kingdom, leaving aside the trade issues of the speed of delivery. When we hit a medicines shortage, we can bring in product quickly. I am sure the Deputy knows much more about the practicalities than I do. We can do that currently, but in a Brexit scenario it would be threatened significantly threatened, as Deputy Bernard J. Durkan mentioned. The HPRA is part of a heads of medicine agency network. It is also involved on the board of the European Medicines Agency, which is the regulator. We have identified the difficulty presented by this issue. There is not and could not be a simple solution in a hard Brexit scenario. As such, we may have to look at a different supply route, whereby we would link with other markets in which we might be able to access supplies speedily. However, we are still at the point of identifying all of the challenges, following which, together with other colleagues internationally, we will plan to avail of the available options to work around them. As is apparent from the list of issues we identified, many of which were echoed by members, we did not identify every issue on what is a long list. All of the ones Deputies and Senators have raised are ones of which we are aware. We will move from identifying issues to quantifying them and scenario planning to determine what the options are, including what nobody had thought of previously or had to engage with because for most of our working lives we have operated within the EU domain. As there is none in place, we have to devise alternatives but in collaboration with our European colleagues.

I do not know what the United Kingdom's plans are, but we have noted that the EMA will have to relocate from London. It has already been signalled by the pharamceutical industry in the United Kingdom that this is a big concern for it. The Japanese pharmaceutical industry has also expressed concern that the EMA will have to relocate from the United Kingdom because that is where it is plugged in. It is one of the consequences that may not have been contemplated when votes were being cast and debates were being had in the United Kingdom. Internationally, everyone is waiting to see what proposition the United Kingdom will make in this respect when it moves into the negotiations. There will be issues and sub-issues all the way down in every sector. The United Kingdom has not put into the public domain what its analysis is or how it wants to proceed. We are all waiting to see how it plans to move forward.

On the issue of recognition of persons who have trained in the United Kingdom, as it happens, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland is one of the bodies with which I have a working relationship in the Department. It has identified this issue as a key concern. It operates a registration programme for pharmacists from non-EU and non-EEA countries, whereby applicants must successfully complete all stages of a third country qualification recognition process. It is much more onerous than automatic recognition.