Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I am glad to note the Department is engaging with counterparts in the UK. What is the degree to which the Department has identified the main areas of potential threat after Brexit? Have they all been covered and are there areas not mentioned? A so-called walk away scenario has been mentioned across the water on more than one occasion but that is that country's choice. We certainly did not ask them to do it. Has that scenario been examined? Has the Department examined the extent to which the prices and costs of medicines we must avail of compare with manufacturing costs in other EU countries? I hope the UK will have a trade agreement with the European Union, although some of the negotiators on the UK side have suggested otherwise. In the event that it turns out otherwise, has the Department made the necessary provisions to ensure we do not find ourselves in an isolated position as an island off an island, despite being members of the European Union? I hope we will still have the full benefits of membership of the European Union.

To what extent will medical science knowledge be exchanged and exchangeable after Brexit? Will it be possible to avail of advances in medical science in the likes of case conferences? To what degree has the Department examined the ongoing availability of such procedures after Brexit in the event of a walk away scenario? What other countries are most likely competing with Ireland for the British market in pharmaceutical exports and other medical science advances? To what extent has the Department isolated them? What are the conclusions and is the Department satisfied, again in the event of a scorched earth policy, that we will survive and not be disadvantaged as a result of somebody else deciding to leave the European Union? Somebody else could go at a later stage on the basis of a success or failure in the British exit.