Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When it comes to the British-Irish Council it has not been the norm for the UK Prime Minister to attend since its inception. I think that Mr. David Cameron may have attended one of the meetings, perhaps in London, or a few during his term of office, but it has been the norm since its inception to send a different senior Cabinet minister to attend the British-Irish Council to represent the UK Government.

In terms of the future role, I believe that both the British-Irish Council and the British-Irish Intergovernmental Council can have an enhanced future role after Brexit, with the British-Irish Council perhaps taking responsibility for monitoring issues around the common travel area, maybe even security co-operation as well as co-operation among the regions, and the British-Irish Intergovernmental Council, which really operates on an ad hocbasis, becoming more permanent and more structured with regular meetings, perhaps one summit once a year involving the two Heads of Government, with bilateral meetings involving ministers and their teams. When the UK leaves the European Union, we will still have a lot to talk about and we will not have the opportunity to meet four or five times a year in Brussels as we do now.

I know Deputy Micheál Martin mentioned the Nordic Council as a potential model. I think that is a something that we need to examine. The intention now is to take it up with the Prime Minister after the British elections, which will happen next week.

Regarding the Scottish independence referendum, First Minister Sturgeon took the opportunity to brief me on her thoughts and plans about it. She informed me that it was her intention, and the intention of the Scottish Government, to have a second referendum in Scotland on independence in the next number of years. Of course, the Scottish Government will need the consent of the UK Government to do that. That may depend on the outcome of the elections next week as well.

On the general situation in Northern Ireland, it is very dynamic at the moment. There are a lot of moving parts. One is the outcome of the Westminster elections next week, which will impact on who will be the Prime Minister and in the Cabinet and whether the next Government has a majority or not. Also, there is still uncertainty about Brexit and whether the withdrawal agreement can be ratified. There is a potential in the next couple of weeks for us to get some certainty, both on the composition of the UK Government and also on the UK's intentions with regard to Brexit. I think that creates the opportunity for talks to resume in Northern Ireland around re-establishing the institutions and getting them functioning again and also around the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the problems that were being experienced in the health service in Northern Ireland. I make a point of at least looking at the front pages of all the Northern Ireland newspapers every day. He is absolutely right. There are major problems in the health service in Northern Ireland that are not dissimilar to the ones faced here, in Britain or, indeed, in very many jurisdictions around the western world. The front page of the Belfast Telegraph for the past three or four days has been leading with health stories around the strikes, problems with cancer tests, problems with waiting lists and access. It is sadly a feature of the vast majority of public health services in the western world to different extents. The extents do vary, but the problems are very similar - waiting times, overcrowding in emergency departments and difficulty recruiting and retaining staff. I know that the German health minister is currently seeking 50,000 more nurses. The UK's NHS talks about, I think, 100,000 vacancies. Even the whole issue of overspending - health trusts and so on not being able to stick to budget - is very similar, albeit to different extents and different levels of severity in different jurisdictions.

We should say one thing about our health service that often gets missed. The focus is always on overcrowding and trolleys, and I understand why that is the case, but we do not focus on - this is unfair on our health service and our health service staff - patient outcomes enough.

For example, somebody who gets cancer in Ireland has a better chance of survival than somebody who gets cancer and is treated by the NHS in Scotland, England, Wales or Northern Ireland. We are seeing real improvements in patient outcomes with regard to stroke, heart attack and life expectancy. All of these patient outcomes and indicators in our health service are going in the right direction. This does not happen by accident. It happens because of investment, good strategies, good policies and the phenomenal work of the staff in the health service. This should be recognised more.

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