Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Not in public session though. I thank the Minister, Deputy Byrne, for a comprehensive answer to what was a considerable number of questions. On the rule of law issue, I accept that talking has to take primacy. I accept what is happening at the minute and the processes in regard to Article 7 and then the recovery and resilience funding, which matters because money counts on leverage. At one stage when budgets were being finalised there was talk of there possibly being rule of law implications but there was a constitutional difficulty around that. Has the European Council or the EU in any general sense looked at that? Are we any further on in regard to operating that on a wider basis? I refer only to having the leverage, one might not necessarily ever use it. Better to have the stick than not have it.

The other question goes back to - obviously we are in a different place in regard to Covid-19 at this time and booster vaccines could be a mitigation that would make a huge difference, so that needs to be top of the agenda, I agree with Deputy Byrne on that - the TRIPS waiver and the European Commission has placed itself in a particular place on that argument. I do not particularly care if somebody puts a plan out and says "here is how we deliver for the developed world" and I mean something more than COVAX, the best-case scenario for which is 20% of the populations in developed countries and that is accepting there will be logistical difficulties in regard to it working.