John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all our guests for their very insightful contributions, containing important information and statistics that are shocking and alarming. As we face into the ongoing commitment for global solidarity and social justice, the contributions are very timely. Unfortunately, the big pharmaceutical companies continue to profiteer on the backs of people throughout the world. I believe one of the witnesses said countries are ready to go but the vaccines are not there. That is the call from throughout the world. It is very clear that the pandemic can only be ended by protecting all nations. It is interesting to hear the comment that no one is safe until everyone is safe. That is the only way we will get on top of this global emergency. No pharmaceutical company should profit from the pandemic. We need to ensure widespread availability across all nations. It is shocking that nearly 70 countries will only be able to vaccinate approximately 10% of their populations next year.

Another shocking figure that was given related to the cost of one of the vaccines. The term "morally corrupt" springs to mind when some countries are being charged €7 per vaccine. South Africa is being charged €5, but some of the better off countries in Europe are only being charged €2 per vaccine. That clearly shows everything that is wrong with the roll-out of the vaccines.

Wealthy countries will have enough vaccine to protect all their citizens three times over in 2021 and yet some of the poorer underdeveloped countries are struggling to vaccinate their citizens. Lessons need to be learned from the AIDS crisis. I believe 9 million people in African countries alone died of AIDS while they were screaming out for access to the medication to help with AIDS.

I believe five European countries, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal and the Netherlands, have signed up to support the Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program, CTAP, along with 40 countries globally and a list of organisations that were mentioned earlier. Several Irish experts, including Professor Luke O'Neill, Dr. Sam McConkey and many others, support it. Sinn Féin fully supports the programme.

We also support another initiative and I might ask for views on this. I refer to the Right to Cure initiative, a European citizens' initiative that was launched last year, which proposes to put public health before private profit, and to make anti-pandemic vaccines and treatments a global public good, freely accessible to everyone. As we need 1 million signatures to move that initiative forward, I appeal to anyone who is listening to sign up to support it. There is significant crossover in the objectives of CTAP and that particular initiative to ensure intellectual property rights and patents do not hamper the accessibility or availability of any future Covid-19 vaccine or treatment, and to ensure that EU legislation on data and market exclusivity does not limit the immediate effectiveness of compulsory licences issued by members.

There are a number of other points there as well. Is this something our witnesses also support? I have a question relating to the failure of countries to support C-TAP and the dire consequences of that. Do we have expectations or analysis of what the impact will be? We see some of the financial impacts, which are shocking, and how it will affect some poorer countries. When we speak about people and individuals, how will the failure to introduce C-TAP affect them?

It is unbelievable that the Irish Government has not signed up to support this. What engagement, if any, has taken place between Access to Medicines Ireland and the Government? What do the witnesses feel as organisations, doctors and people about this issue? What are the largest obstacles blocking C-TAP? Are there particular interest groups such as shareholders?