Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Connor, but I think it is fair to say there is no pharmaceutical or healthcare company that has not triumphed and profited during the Covid-19 pandemic. Any of them I speak to, it is a bit like the English 700 years ago. They used to go to war when the economy was faltering. It has been a decent period for the pharmaceutical sector.

Some of the initiatives were referred to, including the mRNA technology transfer hub and COVAX. Regarding what is being put into Africa, which is 672 million doses, it probably seems like a large number until we realise 11 million doses have already been administered in Ireland and Africa is a large continent. It was brought into context for me yesterday when a South African lady came into my constituency office. She had waited 18 months for her Irish citizenship to come through and her Irish passport finally arrived this week. She can now go back to South Africa and visit the grave of her son, who died in the early stages of Covid-19 because he did not have access to a vaccine. This woman was in the fortunate position that she was living here in a very advanced society and was able to access her Covid-19 vaccine quickly. That experience showed me at first hand the disparities that exist. While I appreciate what is happening in respect of the transfer of technology and in the context of COVAX, there is an onus on the pharmaceutical sector to do much more. Certainly, the only space where we can see that happening is through the TRIPS waiver.