Ireland is the obvious choice for an EASA licence but I am told they are maxed out and don't have enough staff to cope, The same applies to medicals. Pilots have been left trying to second guess which licence/medical to have and now the authorities haven't got the capacity to provide the service and reverse unfortunate bad but well intentioned choices, and Covid problems just add to the chaos. AME's are struggling to cope with more complex PPE medicals, many are shielding and have closed down and some have retired. Adding to this, the CAA is about to put everything online and this is going to lead to more AME angst. I believe the Irish AME's (there aren't enough of them) are struggling too. Oh and the Govt dumped Brexit chaos on top of this just to add a bit more pointless chaos and confusion to satisfy the people who simply and irrationally just hate the E in EASA..
All this is being pointed out to Shapps by people who care and who are trying to smooth over the cracks but it sounds like he is just stone-walling them or doesn't understand or care.
I also heard that Ryanair have been caught out by this because there is so little EASA medical capacity in the UK and travelling abroad to get one done is a nightmare, There is very little spare medical capacity in the EU for the same reasons above.