Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

In evidence to the committee on 11 May, Mr. Oliver O’Connor, chief executive of the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, expressed the view that a waiver on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, TRIPS, would not improve the Covid-19 response in Africa because in his opinion, "there are more vaccines available than the African countries are ready and capable of accepting". I argued the real reason the pharmaceutical industry opposed the waiver was because it was unwilling to give up intellectual property rights in order that it could continue to make as much profit as possible. In doing so, I also queried whether Mr. O’Connor in expressing that view was using a "racist trope". I am happy to clarify that I was not and am not accusing Mr. O’Connor of being a racist or of having racist intent.