Answer to a written question – Emergency Department at Ennis Hospital, Ireland – E-000945/2025(ASW)

According to Article 168(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union[1], a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Union policies and activities. Article 168(7) provides that Union action shall respect responsibilities of the Member States for the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care . The EU supplements and supports these efforts, especially by encouraging cooperation and exchange of best practices among countries. This means that the Commission has no mandate to call for a reopening of the Emergency Department as referred.

The challenges in accessing healthcare have been reported in the Country Health Profile 2023 for Ireland under the ‘State of Health in the EU’[2]. In the context of the 2020 European Semester, a Country-Specific Recommendation was addressed to Ireland to improve accessibility of its health system and strengthen its resilience[3]. A number of EU funding programmes, such as the EU4Health Programme[4], the Recovery and Resilience Facility, and the Cohesion Policy Funds, offer significant funding opportunities, which Ireland can use to strengthen its healthcare system in response to this recommendation. For example, the Irish Recovery and Resilience Plan[5] has earmarked EUR 75 million for reforms and investments to progress on the implementation of the Sláintecare reform programme.

The EU Health Policy Platform, which has replaced the EU health forum, is used to facilitate stakeholder engagement in EU health policies. It is a restricted Platform accessible through membership and is not designed to be used for national health system issues.

• [1] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:12012E/TXT&from=en.
• [2] https://health.ec.europa.eu/document/download/20f96f89-7286-4e4f-8a2c-bea12cf97576_en?filename=2023_chp_ie_english.pdf.
• [3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A52020DC0507.
• [4] https://health.ec.europa.eu/funding/eu4health-programme-2021-2027-vision-healthier-european-union_en.
• [5] https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/d4939-national-recovery-and-resilience-plan-2021/.