Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 8 May 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
WHO Treaty on Pandemic Preparedness: Department of Health
Mr. Robert Watt:
I will make a comment and Mr. Hanly might come in. As we say, no country is safe until we are all safe because a pathogen of the type we had previously can cross borders and we are in an interconnected world. As we discovered, it is very hard to keep something out. We all have to work in a collaborative way. Lessons have been learned on access to vaccines and access to the technology. We remember the discussions we had at the very start about PPE and ventilators. It is to ensure that we work collaboratively in a way that ensures, as best we can given the fact we have sovereign nations, that when it comes to these practical issues we work in a collaborative way to learn the lessons from Covid.