Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When officials from the Department of Health Brexit committee appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health, I was flabbergasted. When we asked how many people use the cross-border directive to avail of NHS services, they were able to give us an approximate figure, but were not able to tell us how many people go to England. However, what was worse was that when I asked why they did not have that information for the meeting, they advised me that they had only sought the information from the HSE when they got the invitation to our meeting.

I asked a follow-up question on the service level agreement between the HSE and Altnagelvin hospital. I asked them if it was Brexit-proofed. That SLA was signed after the referendum. However, they could not tell me. The Minister and the Department are sleepwalking us into the worst effects of Brexit. I do not think this issue is being taken seriously - perhaps by the Minister but not by his officials.

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