Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will start with a quotation from a man whom the House will not hear me quoting too often. A former Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, said in December last year that dealing with drug companies brought out "whatever socialist instincts may be buried in me". The Minister, Deputy Varadkar, is entirely right in the sense that putting the activities of the pharmaceutical multinationals under the microscope makes a powerful case against the market forces of the capitalist system, which his party defends, and a powerful case for public ownership organised on a need for need not-for-profit basis, as advocated by the socialist left.

I do not have a large amount of time available, so I will look at the activities of one company, a multinational corporation called Gilead. It has the patent for one of the most advanced treatments in the world for hepatitis C, SOVALDI. Since it patented SOVALDI, its global profits have skyrocketed from $3.6 billion in 2012 to $21.7 billion in 2015. A US-based advocacy group, Americans for Tax Fairness, claimed the company is funnelling money through Ireland. Recently, thejournal.iecarried an article which claimed the company set-up appears to be similar to that used by many other multinationals as part of the double Irish structure. Gilead has half a dozen Irish subsidiaries. One of the firm's main Irish subsidiaries made a full year profit of $1.3 billion in 2012, but paid zero to the Exchequer as the firm was tax resident in the Bahamas.

How does Gilead treat the Irish State in return for such generosity? More importantly, how does it treat hepatitis C suffers in this country? In this Republic, hepatitis C affects approximately 30,000 people. A 12-week treatment course of SOVALDI can be produced by the company for a little more than €150. I understand it is sold on the Egyptian market for $900, which is a significant enough markup. The price for the HSE and the Irish State is not €150 or $900, but €45,000 for one 12-week course of treatment. This is profiteering on a massive scale, and it is profiteering on the back of human misery. It means that only those for whom the illness is very advanced receive the treatment in Ireland. In 2015, approximately 350 people benefited from SOVALDI through the health service. The other more than 29,000 people who suffer from hepatitis C must wait until such time as they get significantly sicker before they get access to the treatment.

We will support the motion, but it is very narrow and limited. It does not tackle profiteering on this scale. In reality, what is needed here is not minor change, but system change. This change will be hastened the more people understand the reality of capitalism, an ugly reality revealed all too clearly by examples of profiteering such as the one I have just outlined.

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