Mr. Robbie Lawlor:

I thank Deputy O'Connell for her strong words. I am delighted she raised the issue of the developing world and lower and middle-income countries. We have spoken a good deal about Ireland and our issues, but we also have to recognise these policies can have far-reaching effects. I will speak about HIV because I work in that area. We know, thankfully, that because of generic drugs, the uptake of HIV medication has increased in use from around 9% or 10% of the affected world population, when the price was $10,000, to 53% of the affected population today. That is brilliant and is thanks to generic drugs. Some 47% of the population still do not have access to HIV treatment. We know such treatment stops AIDS-related deaths and the transmission of HIV. We are not there yet and one of the main reasons is the high cost of drugs.

Equally, I am on my fifth option for HIV medication. In Uganda, there is only access to two options. I would be dead if I had been born in a lower income or middle-income country where there is only access to two drugs. The real question is why we put more value on my life rather than on the lives of all of my friends in Uganda. That is the current system. I am delighted Deputy O'Connell brought up the issue of the developing and lower income and middle-income world. There can be far-reaching effects in respect of generic drugs and we need to understand that. Regarding education, there was initially a slow uptake of antiretroviral therapy. Many people at the time were uneducated and thought they could be healed by the power of God or that HIV was actually invented by the CIA in America. There were many conspiracy theories and they can become rife in countries with a lower standard of education.

Thanks, however, to Irish Aid, which pumped a great deal of money into community representation and education programs, we have seen increased uptake of antiretrovirals. This model works and it needs to be used for vaccinations. In addition, there is also the issue of not reducing the cost of vaccinations by $5. Médecins Sans Frontières has done many reports on this topic. A small reduction in the cost can lead to a great increase in the uptake of vaccinations by the vast majority of people who want them. My perspective is that we should think of Ireland and what we can do at EU-level but let us not forget those whose voices are not being heard on the global stage.