Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the opportunity to discuss the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020. In particular, I want to focus on the area of healthcare, which is dealt with in Part 2 of the Bill. It deals with arrangements on healthcare and allows the Minister to make the necessary regulations to deal with this area now that the UK is leaving the European Union. A memorandum of understanding is already in place between Ireland and the UK on many of these issues. It is important to understand the contribution that Irish people have made to the British health service and the contribution that Britain has made to the Irish health service, in that many of the training processes in the medical profession are organised jointly.

There is huge co-operation between Northern Ireland and the Republic and between the Republic and the UK. Many Irish doctors and nurses train in the UK, or part of their training is in the UK. This is, to an extent, going to change because the UK will no longer be part of the European Union. This training process was already in place long before either country entered the European Union. There was a huge level of co-operation on medical care in both areas and we have learned an awful lot from one another. It is important that we keep this level of co-operation and contact in developing healthcare and have this connection. In Ireland there may be particular procedures or treatments needed by only five or six people in any one year, which means it is not possible to locate a specialist dealing with the particular issue here in Ireland. This is why we have worked with UK medical authorities on this matter, with regard to rare diseases and, in particular, very complex medical procedures such as transplants.

The arrangements we are speaking about, which are dealt with in the Bill, allow the Minister to deal with regulations and set out the categories covered by the common travel area and the entitlement of citizens to visit, work, study and reside in another state. The arrangements also outline categories of health services, such as planned healthcare, in the other state. We have become very much familiar with cross-border healthcare. I had the privilege of being in the European Parliament when the issue of cross-border healthcare was being discussed and progressed between 2007 and 2009. It dealt with the entitlement to travel to another member state to get healthcare if the healthcare required is not available in the person's own member state or there is undue delay. It was finally passed in 2011 and came into place in Ireland 30 months later. People have had the benefit of it in Northern Ireland, people from the UK have travelled to Europe for healthcare, and people have travelled from Ireland to Northern Ireland and the UK.

The existing arrangements outline a number of categories of health services. As well as planned healthcare and cross-border healthcare, which I have dealt with, the arrangements also outline other categories, including healthcare during a temporary visit whereby tourists are entitled to get healthcare; the right to healthcare of posted workers, for example, a person posted by an employer to the UK for a period of time of less than 12 months; and the right to healthcare of frontier workers, who work in one state and reside in another, and we have many frontier workers in our Border counties, with people living in the Republic and working in Northern Ireland or vice versa. Students studying in Ireland or in the UK will also require healthcare and their right to healthcare is also included in the existing arrangements. It is important that we make sure the arrangements we have had and enjoyed for a long number of years can continue.

I know there will be different qualifying criteria and it will be managed differently, but it is important that we co-operate with one another in this area.

Access to healthcare for Irish residents in the UK will be based on the health legislation applicable to each of the four devolved areas of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. UK residents will have access to health services in Ireland on the same basis as a person with limited eligibility status who resides in Ireland. It is important we make sure we can continue that level of co-operation. It also means we must work with our other partners in Europe, such as Holland, Denmark and all of the other EU countries, to develop closer co-operation. We need to make sure we keep up to date so we can deliver the quality of healthcare that is available in this country and that continues to be developed in other countries. We need to keep up with them.

One of the other areas we need to focus on is the whole area of research and development. There has been a lot of co-operation between the UK and the Republic of Ireland in regard to the area of research, and it is important that this would continue. There is connectivity because of the training mechanisms within the medical profession, and it is important no barriers are put in place to reduce that connectivity at any stage in the future. In recent months, we have faced a pandemic right across the world. It has been amazing to see the level of co-operation that has taken place in trying to develop a vaccine. We have had progress on that matter in the last 48 hours with the announcement by Pfizer that it may have a vaccine available quite soon. It is important that we are in tune with the progress made in areas like research and development at all times so we can make a contribution but also get a benefit. That is what has happened with our healthcare service and it is why we must continue to make sure we do not in any way reduce our level of contact with the UK in that area.

I very much welcome the work done by the Department of Health, the previous Minister, Deputy Harris, and the current Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, in this area. I thank all Departments, all officials and all the Ministers who have held relevant portfolios for the work they have done in regard to foreign affairs, agriculture, transport and health. We have made huge progress in trying to come to an agreement that will benefit every citizen in this State. It is important that we continue that work right up until we have an agreement that can benefit all of us. I thank the Minister, the officials and everyone involved for their work in this area and for dealing with what has been a very complex area in recent years. Let us hope that, in the not-too-distant future, we can see a greater level of co-operation from the UK with the European Union, and that the co-operation that existed while it was a member will continue to grow and develop in the years ahead.

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