Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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146. To ask the Minister for Health the plans the HSE is putting into place in case of supply issues with products sourced from the UK following the UK's departure from the EU in particular for children with rare diseases such as PKU (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38152/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Ensuring that Brexit produces minimum disruption to health services, and that essential services are maintained on a cross-Border, all-island and Ireland-UK basis is a key priority of the Department of Health. This includes maintaining continuity in the supply of medicines and other specialised supplies sourced from the UK.

The Department of Health and its agencies including the HSE have been conducting detailed analysis on the impacts of Brexit in the area of health and intensive Brexit preparedness and contingency planning is underway.

Maintaining continuity of supply of medicines and other specialised supplies sourced from the UK irrespective of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations is a key priority of the Department of Health. As such, we are examining customs and regulatory issues as they relate to additional food safety controls and medicines. The implications of Brexit for networks and organisations such as the EU Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed are also under consideration.

Contingency planning for a no-deal or worst-case outcome was identified as an early priority and is now well advanced. Its focus is on the immediate economic, regulatory and operational challenges which would result from such an outcome. It assumes a trading relationship based on the default WTO rules, but also examines the possible effects on many other areas of concern.

In line with this approach, the Government has already approved a number of key Brexit preparedness measures focused on East-West trade and has mandated the presentation to Government before the end of September of detailed and costed proposals on the staffing, IT, infrastructural and operational requirements for the implementation at ports and airports of the necessary customs controls and sanitary and phytosanitary checks required as a result of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The Government had a further discussion on contingency and Brexit preparedness on 18 September.

This work has provided baseline scenarios for the impact of Brexit across all sectors, which can then be adapted as appropriate in light of developments in the EU-UK negotiations. This is enabling the modelling of potential responses under different scenarios, such as one where a withdrawal agreement, including a transitional arrangement, is concluded and where a Free Trade Agreement is the basis for the future relationship between the EU and the UK.

The co-ordination of the whole-of-Government response to Brexit is being taken forward through the cross-Departmental coordination structures chaired by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Under this structure the Department of Health is working closely with all other Government Departments and agencies to address the many challenges resulting from Brexit.