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

It strikes me that we are very far behind on this. I do not know that we would be able to catch up but we can tease that out. Mr. Gaffney will be aware that there are well-accredited groups that have a view about that courts such as the UPC limit democratic freedoms and, crucially, interfere with the creation of things such as patent-free medicine. We have had a debate at this committee, as I know the Committee on Health and others have, on the TRIPS waiver and how important it is to get those medicines, especially in the midst of a global pandemic. Dr. Mike Ryan keeps saying nobody is safe until everybody is safe and that the medicines should be gotten to the people who need them. What would Mr. Gaffney say to the people who would charge that this puts a limit on democratic freedoms and will interfere with the potential to create patent-free medicines?