Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
Implications for Health Sector of United Kingdom's Withdrawal from the EU: Discussion (Resumed)
Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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After Brexit the United Kingdom will, effectively, be a third country. I acknowledge the preparatory work already done and congratulate the delegates on the options they have covered. Dipping a little further into the food quality controls that will apply, as a third country the United Kingdom will import from and export to third countries and, presumably, the European Union. If there is no agreement and it is a crash-out, the scenery will be slightly different. Will adequate controls be in place to ensure the quality and standards applicable throughout the European Union will continue to prevail, given, in particular, that we will be in the European Union, while the United Kingdom will not? Is it envisaged that an EU standard will be applicable? I acknowledge the common travel area, but I am a little worried about the extent to which it will prevail if the standards to which we have become accustomed in the European Union continue to apply.