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Dáil
‹ An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

Northern Ireland health arrangements

Summary

Brendan Howlin asks about legislation to extend health and social care benefits to Northern Ireland residents and some British citizens. The Taoiseach says the Government is drafting legislation to implement commitments on EHIC and Erasmus+ support.

I join with others in congratulating all successful all-Ireland teams this year, in particular the five-in-a-row Dublin team that finally eclipsed Wexford's four in a row. It was said that that was done in the First World War so it is quite a while since Wexford hurlers were that successful.

I wish to ask the Taoiseach about legislation. It was reported this morning that the Cabinet considered proposals to deal with new legislation from the Departments of Health and Children and Youth Affairs to provide health and social care benefits to residents in Northern Ireland and British citizens who move to Ireland, arising from a no-deal Brexit. In January and February, as the Taoiseach knows, the Oireachtas spent a great deal of time fast-tracking omnibus legislation to deal with what we understood were all aspects that might arise from a no-deal Brexit. I presume this arose from further examination. Are there other pieces of legislation that might be required? Will we be briefed on anything that has been discovered? I attended all the stakeholders' meetings and it has never been raised there. Neither have we been briefed on any outstanding matters at the political meetings to date. Could the Taoiseach clarify, first, what specific legislative changes have been identified as being needed and if there will be more?

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Leo Varadkar The Taoiseach Fine Gael

The Brexit omnibus Act covers all the legislative requirements that we needed to deal with no deal. However, subsequent to that being enacted we made a commitment to do all that we could to extend the European health insurance card, EHIC, to all residents in Northern Ireland and also Erasmus+. We found a means of doing that but it is not perfect; it is a bit clumsy. The Minister for Health got approval this morning from the Cabinet to draft legislation. We intend to have that done by 31 October. That means that Irish, EU and UK citizens living in Northern Ireland will still be able to have their health expenses refunded should they require emergency medical services in another part of the European Union. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, also received approval this morning to ensure that UK residents in Ireland will still be able to avail of the national childcare scheme. They are the two legislative changes we decided on today. We believe there may be another one relating to family law, namely, to reduce the minimum living-apart period for spouses applying for a divorce to address the implications of a no-deal Brexit for the recognition of UK divorces. Other than those three, there are no other legislative changes that I am aware of at the moment, but if they arise we will inform the House.

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