Mr. Jim Breslin:

Mr. Goodman has reminded me about the question of legislation. The Bill whose heads were published is to be introduced before a no-deal crash out, which we hope will not happen. That is subject to drafting and bringing the Bill through the Oireachtas. The intention is that the legislation, which would sit above what we have talked about and would allow for the HSE to reimburse services in the UK that are treating Irish patients, for example, would go through before 29 March.

On workforce, there is a degree of speculation and it is not going to impact us immediately in April. However, it will potentially change the global attractiveness of the UK. One of the things that may happen is that professionals who are trained elsewhere in the EU may no longer find it attractive to go to the UK. The UK is seized of that. They may then find themselves running into shortages in the UK. They are just as worried about non-professionally qualified healthcare staff such as cleaners, porters and other staff. There may well be shortages in those areas because traditionally a lot of those posts have been filled by foreign nationals in the UK. They may respond to that by looking for English-speaking health professionals and targeting us. Equally, we would be more attractive in that situation because EU-qualified professionals who want to come to an English-speaking country will no longer have the UK to go to and may be interested in Ireland. It is push and pull and it is hard to speculate. We are working on getting the professional recognitions in place that would allow us to be able to move in the event of any patterns that develop.