Healthcare
This part of the Bill covers a range of reciprocal healthcare arrangements, including reimbursements, to be maintained between Ireland and the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
The arrangements facilitate access to health services in the UK and Ireland, including access to emergency, routine and planned healthcare, and put the continuation for the Common Travel Area arrangements on a legal footing post-Brexit.
The healthcare section covers 18 sections, ranging from guaranteeing that Irish residents with rare diseases or requiring transplants can continue to be treated in UK hospitals to making sure that the HSE can process patient data for UK patients in Irish hospitals.
This section covers “frontier workers,” including people in the Border area who live in the State but work in the UK, workers posted to the State from the UK for no more than two years and pensioners in receipt of a UK state pension who do not receive an Irish contributory State pension. These individuals and dependents will continue to have full healthcare eligibility without means testing .
The Bill ensures UK residents and students, including people in the Border area living in the UK but working in the State, will continue to receive healthcare if they become ill or have an accident .
This section also allows Northern Ireland-resident workers in the Border area to continue accessing healthcare should they not qualify for full eligibility following the means assessment.
Irish patients with rare diseases and requiring certain organ transplants would still be able to access healthcare in the UK under reciprocal arrangements. The legislation creates a similar scheme to the EU cross-Border directive through which Irish residents are reimbursed for the cost of treatment in UK hospitals to ensure these patients can continue to be reimbursed post-Brexit.
Welfare
It provides for amendments to existing legislation to allow for the continued payment of social welfare payments as they relate to the Common Travel Area. The Common Travel Area allows Irish and EU citizens avail of benefits such as pensions and illness and child benefits in each other’s country. The legislation would allow for this arrangement to continue even in the case of a no-deal Brexit outcome.
Transport
The Bill looks to provide for cross-Border rail and bus services between Ireland and Northern Ireland. This includes the recognition of the certifications of train drivers from non-EU countries and how an agreement can be reached with the UK after Brexit “for cross-Border rail services”, if required.
It will allow Ireland, after Brexit, to enter into bilateral agreements with the UK on cross-Border bus services. It will make the National Transport Authority the “competent authority” to regulate bus services between Ireland and non-EU countries.
Enterprise Ireland supports
The Bill provides measures enabling Enterprise Ireland to continue supporting businesses through investments, loans, and research and development grants in order to limit the “negative effects” that Brexit could have “on vulnerable enterprises”.
This section permits the State agency to start grants to “non-industrial” and horticultural sectors which will help the Government support one of the sectors of the economy most affected by Brexit: agrifood producers.
The legislation would allow grant aid to meet the research needs of large indigenous companies in “important fields of veterinary and pharmaceutical industries” as Brexit “may create an additional need for such supports”.
The 50 per cent cap on grant aid for research and development is lifted, permitting the State to provide up to 70 per cent of the costs for a small business and 60 per cent for a medium-sized enterprise.
The Bill permits Enterprise Ireland to make advance research and development grant payments to companies regardless of size.
Education grants
The Bill protects the payment of education grants to eligible students studying in the UK and UK nationals studying in the UK under the Susi scheme. The grants are being protected as part of the State’s commitment to the rights and privileges of the Common Travel Area.
Insurance companies
The Bill also deals with British- or Gibraltar-based insurance companies operating in Ireland. It will ensure that any contracts signed before Brexit day at the end of March will continue to be serviced – “such as paying out on claims or accepting premium payments”. However, such companies will not be able to sign new contracts after Brexit day until they obtain EU authorisation.
Employee rights
The legislation seeks to protect the rights of Irish employees of UK companies which go insolvent. Specifically, it aims to preserve Irish workers’ rights to claim pay arrears, holiday pay and pay in lieu of statutory notice under the insolvency payments scheme, which is set up to “protect outstanding wage-related entitlements owed to employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer”.
Extraditions and immigration
The Department of Justice has moved to ensure that extraditions between the UK and Ireland are unaffected. “One of the key issues identified . . . is to ensure that effective extradition arrangements are maintained between Ireland and the UK,” according to the heads of Bill.
The Department of Justice has also inserted amendments to the immigration acts relating to the State’s obligation to undertake a so-called “refoulement consideration” in relation to an illegal immigrant who has a concern that their life or freedom could be threatened if they were returned to a particular territory.
There are several amendments governing data exchange as it relates to immigration and naturalisation, as well as the EU’s data privacy laws. Specifically, the Bill seeks to “facilitate the immediate exchange of data with the UK”.
The Bill also introduces an amendment to provide for the “exchange of immigration data with the UK”.
Taxation
The taxation section of the Bill will ensure continuity in access to measures such as allowances and reliefs. Regarding income tax, it will ensure that those measures will continue to apply if the UK is no longer a member of the EU. It also deals with capital gains tax, capital acquisitions tax, stamp duty and corporation tax.
The measures will ensure UK citizens resident here continue to qualify for normal reliefs and also cover businesses operating in the two jurisdictions.
Stock exchange
Another section deals with the status of Euronext Dublin, formerly known as the Irish Stock Exchange. It currently uses a UK-based system to settle trades in Irish equities and exchange-traded funds. This would not be possible in a no-deal Brexit scenario and this element of the legislation would see the Irish Stock Exchange transfer to an EU system over two-year period.
Single electricity market
This legislative change is precautionary and time-limited to provide the all-island electricity market and would only come into force in the event of a no-deal Brexit. It would give the State’s energy regulator sufficient powers to amend the licences of energy providers in a transparent and prompt manner to ensure that they comply with the body of EU laws covering energy after the UK leaves the EU.
