Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. The directive on patient's rights in cross-border healthcare, commonly called the cross-border directive, provides rules for the reimbursement to patients of the cost of receiving treatment abroad where the patient would be entitled to such treatment in his or her home member state. The directive seeks to ensure a clear and transparent framework for the provision of cross-border healthcare within the EU for those occasions where the care patients seek is provided in another member state rather than in their home country.

The EU cross-border directive which has been implemented in Ireland since 2014 has enabled many Irish patients to access health services in many other EU member states. Geographic proximity to Northern Ireland and the UK means that the vast majority of Irish patients tend to access care in that jurisdiction. That is why the decision of our neighbour, the UK, to leave the EU has a very real impact on our citizens. As the cross-border directive is underpinned by EU legislation, from 1 January next, the provisions of this scheme will no longer apply to Northern Ireland and the UK in general. This is an unfortunate and undesirable consequence of Brexit that is outside the Government's control, but the Minister for Health is acutely aware that patients and Deputies are concerned about the loss of access to services, particularly in Northern Ireland, which are accessed under the directive. As part of Department officials' Brexit planning, there has been extensive examination of this matter, which has raised a number of key policy and legal issues.

Noting the importance the Department places on ensuring that Irish patients will continue to access this capacity, the Minister has tasked officials with examining the feasibility of implementing a unilateral arrangement similar to the cross-border directive to provide that Irish residents can continue to access services from private health service providers in the UK post the end of the transition period. That work, which is detailed and complex, is ongoing. I reassure Deputies that it is the Minister's intention that Irish patients should be able to benefit from accessing these services in future. It important to restate that patients will still have recourse to access health services under the EU cross-border directive scheme in 30 other countries from 1 January 2021.

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