Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will deal with Deputy Donnelly's point before addressing the substance of Deputy O'Reilly's amendments. This is a unilateral decision Ireland is taking, not a bilateral arrangement with the UK Government. We as a State are making this decision to fulfil what we believe are our responsibilities under the Good Friday Agreement. Irish taxpayers will meet the reimbursement costs and there is no role for the Northern Ireland Office, the UK or anyone else in that regard. We all agree this is the right and proper thing to do under the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

I refer to the operation of the scheme. We have instructed the HSE to provide for a robust online portal system that will require some verifications from the applicant. It will validate the applicant's eligibility status, through provision of proof of residence, for example. It will also require validation of reimbursement claims, such as a copies of receipts, and the completion of a self-declaration form, which confirms that the health benefits being reimbursed meet the terms of the scheme. As I stated on Second Stage, one cannot go to France for an operation in a planned manner. This provision is only for people who get sick while on a temporary visit abroad. That is how EHICs have always worked. The primary legislation will not deal with the operational scheme. Instead, statutory regulations will set out the form and manner in which the HSE will reimburse applicants, as well as the detailed design of the scheme. I expect to sign these regulations in the coming weeks, before 31 October. We will operate the scheme through an online portal in as easy a manner as possible while putting safeguards in place. I am happy to keep the House updated as the regulations progress.

I acknowledge the good faith in which Deputy O'Reilly's amendments were tabled. In an ideal world, not only would I be accepting these amendments, but they would be in the substance of the Bill we brought forward. The effect of the Deputy's amendments is to delete references to the direct reimbursement scheme, which is the core purpose of the legislation before the House, and replace them with an explicit obligation on the Minister for Health to issue EHICs to eligible persons resident in Northern Ireland. That is what we set out to do, and while it seems a simple proposal on the face of it, I assure the Deputy that it is far from straightforward. The Deputy has rightly asked me, on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland, to explain why that is the case.

The legal basis for issuing EHICs is provided by EU Regulation No. 883/2004. It was not debated much during Second Stage but that is the European Parliament regulation on which EHICs hang. We all know how they work, so I do not need to go through that again. Our preferred approach to this objective was to extend cover to the target cohort, that is, people resident in Northern Ireland, under that regulation. This approach, if deemed feasible, would have allowed the HSE to issue EHICs to eligible residents in Northern Ireland almost identically to how it does currently. However, that regulation is very detailed. It supports the free movement of people by protecting the social security entitlements of EEA nationals who exercise their right to free movement within the EEA, ensuring that entitlements are not diminished as people move within that area. Its core purpose is to provide for the co-ordination of pensions and unemployment benefits. As such, it has a much broader scope than the sole benefit of EHICs, and there could be unintended consequences to extending it.

Once the Government decided to proceed with this objective, officials in my Department carried out detailed work over the summer months in consultation with other key Departments, principally the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Office of the Attorney General. They assessed whether it was possible to extend the EHIC entitlement to the target cohort only by utilising the discrete healthcare provision of EU Regulation No. 883/2004. We also held informal and formal engagements with the European Commission, as it is responsible for oversight of and technical guidance on the implementation of governing legislation. A subsequent meeting took place in July with representatives of the European Commission and all relevant key stakeholder Departments, at which they explored the possibility of using that regulation to extend EHIC benefits in more detail. Following the formal engagement, Ireland was advised by the Commission that using the existing legal basis set out in EU Regulation No. 883/2004 to extend EHIC cover is not feasible. We therefore had to look for an alternative, which is this Bill. This is absolutely not the perfect way to achieve this goal. However, it is the best way to do it by 31 October.

The Deputy referred to the fact that a review clause is built into the legislation. That is to be welcomed. However, what we would all welcome even more is never needing to commence this legislation. We continue to hope for a planned Brexit rather than a no-deal Brexit. This legislation only comes into effect in the event of a no-deal Brexit. If a Brexit deal is reached, there will then be a transition period, during which people in Northern Ireland will continue to be treated as EU citizens. That will allow us two years or so to tease through all these issues.

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