Professor Gerard Bury:

I will briefly return to the large issue of the establishment of the formal mechanism to perhaps create a framework for the many individuals Deputy Carthy mentioned and who are found all over the world in every crisis. The number of individuals from Ireland contributing at all levels in Ukraine is extraordinary. There is, to the best of my knowledge, no framework at a national level within which medical practitioners and medical staff with specialist expertise can offer those specialist services to areas in which major medical emergencies exist. The HSE has a framework by which staff members who take time off to volunteer on projects may be reimbursed their wages. However, that is not the same as a framework in which a specialist in a hospital discipline, a primary care discipline or a pre-hospital care discipline can offer those specialist services and that expertise to people in need. The NHS has a framework that exists at the moment. To the best of my knowledge, it provides its staff with a framework in which they can offer those skills, experience and expertise to areas in need.

There are, of course, agencies, such as Médecins sans Frontières, MSF, the Irish Red Cross Society and the international Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which have superb systems in which emergency assistance can be offered. However, it seems that the resources of this State, specifically in respect of medical, nursing and pre-hospital care assistance, might be marshalled in a way that enables those who are willing to offer their time, interest and expertise to do so. I believe it is necessary to examine the options to implement that. I do not have, and am not offering, a mechanism immediately to do so but it seems to me that this committee might be one of the vehicles through which those options might be explored and some recommendations robustly examined.