Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry, but I cannot accept that. I know it is not intended that way, but it is verging on the disrespectful to say that low rates of vaccination are caused by a lack of infrastructure, or whatever. There is absolutely no disputing the fact that people in low- to middle-income countries want the vaccines and the treatment. When I say "vaccines", I mean both. These countries want the vaccines, so they will make it happen. Surely Mr. O'Connor would agree that in circumstances where they are facilitated, they will make it happen. It is not just something that people in low- to middle-income countries want, but something that they absolutely need. If we leave things as they are, we are all sitting here and saying that the 1% figure for people who are boosted is grand. We cannot say that. We all agree. At the start of this, I said that nobody is safe until everybody is safe, and everybody nodded. We all established that. However, it is just a slogan if we cannot put a bit of weight behind it. It strikes me that the capacity can be there. I am aware that the issue has been spoken about. I will give other contributors a chance to speak on it as well. If we do not change the rules, or temporarily suspend them, is it not the same as saying that we accept that things will change? The experience from HIV-AIDS is that nothing changed, to any substantial extent, until the technology and the drugs became more freely available. With the greatest of respect, all of the available evidence supports making a change. All of the available evidence suggests that if we do nothing, we will stay where we are, which is not where any of us want to be. If we are going to put some weight behind, and meat on the bones of, the idea that nobody is safe until everybody is safe, surely there has to be some form of a change that is different from how things have been done up to now. The way things have been done up to now has resulted in the figures that we all agree are unacceptable.