Mattie McGrath: Calls Out Government Over Cross-Border Healthcare

Thank you, Conkola, for giving us this topic this evening. Deputy Michael Collins and Deputy Denny Hillyway have done enormous work on this. Thousands of people they have brought to Belfast to get this operation from stopping their own blind hips. I have had a number of people myself that they accommodated from Tipperary and got successful treatment. I think there is a scandal that the Minister is not here this evening, Minister Coveney or the Minister for Health, to answer this. No disrespect to Minister of State fee. And it is a scandal. This has been kicked around in the head of a pen for the last several months because we are frightened. People are ringing now every day to try and get in before the 21st of January. We have all the bilateral agreements about everything else. People can come down, and rightly so. This government seems to have an effort to stop this because they are embarrassed by it and they rather let people go blind and be crippled with hips and knees and backs and scoliosis and everything else and tonsons rather than accept what the good people, the good rural independent TDs are doing, their job to help people to get services they should be getting here. It is an embarrassment that they have to go above. And I think we have to have a clear and definite answer and at least a month's monitoring for January to get people, because there are queues of people banked up waiting to go, and it is totally unfair to them. They are sick people. Just for clarification, this has nothing to do with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Minister Coveney is here. It is a matter for the Department of Health. On a point of order, it is the Brexit. The Omnibus Brexit bill should have embraced this and it did not. We are dealing with it as a health issue, and Minister Fian is here to deal with it, and I am sure he is more than able to respond. Thank you, Ken Curla. I would like to thank Deputy McGrath, Collins and Healy Ray for raising this topic. The Directive on Patients' Rights in Cross-Border Health Care, commonly called the Cross-Border Directive, provides rules for the reimbursement of patients of the cost of receiving treatment abroad, where the patient would be entitled to such treatment in their 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. Of course, our geography, 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 impact of our neighbours and the UK's decision to leave the EU has a very real impact for our citizens. As the Cross-Border Directive is underpinned by EU legislation from 1 January 2021, the revisions of this scheme will no longer apply to Northern Ireland and the UK generally. This is an unfortunate and undesirable consequence of Brexit that is outside the government's control. But Minister O'Donnelly is acutely aware that patients and deputies are concerned about the loss of access to services in Northern Ireland particularly, 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 the Irish patients will continue to access this capacity, Minister O'Donnelly has tasked Department officials with examining the feasibility of implementing a unilateral Cross-Border Directive type arrangement, to provide that Irish residents can continue to access services provided by private health service providers in the UK post the end of the transition period. That work, which is detailed and complex, is still currently ongoing. But I would like to reassure deputies that it is Minister O'Donnelly's intention that Irish patients should be able to benefit from accessing these services in the future. I think it is also 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. Minister O'Donnelly should be here to answer this. He runs like a scarlet cat every time we have a question or a motion down to talk to him. It is a total disrespect to the Ruled Independent Group. A scarlet cat wouldn't go out of the skylight as fast as he's gone. And he's like a snow off a ditch other times. The answer you gave us there, Minister, is clearly condescending to old people. The lads here, my colleagues, bus people to the north. Unfortunately, we happen to acknowledge that the buses will travel on water to go abroad. And I tell people they can go abroad. And I tell people now in the 11th and a half hour that you're looking at a bilateral agreement. You have two years to do this. You never accepted the British and we're going to go. You should have and be ready. So, we're closing the gate, we're closing the stable door when the horse is boated. And well boated. We want certainty. We want to know that people can go. First of all, these people should be treated in Ireland. And it's the Irish taxpayers that pay for it. It's a mockery that they have to go there. But the opportunity was there. And I want to thank Niamh and all the staff in Kingsbridge Hospital, who have been so helpful. And as I said, Deputy Collins and others that organised it. And the staff in Deputy Collins' office, who are running around in the middle of the night, picking up people to bring their bus in Cork. You have no idea the effort it goes into. But it's worth it because people can see and they can stand up and they can walk and they can live some modicum of life. So, this is not acceptable at this point in time. It should have been in the omnibus bill. Thank you very much, Minister. Can you conclude on this important matter? Thank you. And I fully understand the reasons why the deputies have raised this issue here today. A decision of our neighbour to leave the EU will have unfortunate negative implications for Ireland that are outside our control. With the loss of access to healthcare services currently provided by the cross-border directive, representing a substantive and real loss of access to healthcare services for Irish people. However, as I said, Department of Health officials are continuing to examine this matter with a view to ensuring that access to services in Northern Ireland and the UK might be retained in 2021. Separately, I think it is useful to note that we have a memorandum of understanding with the UK that will be signed shortly, which will ensure continued access for Irish residents to essential healthcare in the UK post the end of the transition period. This is a very positive outcome in terms of the Irish and British government's commitment to maintaining, in so far as possible, the current healthcare arrangements under the common travel area. In addition, on behalf of Minister Donnelly, I want to assure deputies that both the Irish and UK governments are fully committed to continuing existing cross-border health services, like the cardiology and cancer treatment services in Altena Galvan, Derry, and paediatric cardiology and related maternity services in Dublin, and to ongoing health service cooperation into the future. Finally, Minister Donnelly will keep deputies updated on progress in relation to Department officials' examination of the feasibility of implementing a unilateral CBD type arrangement. and the A National Program Association Association Association Association Association Association Pastor