Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The resignation in April of the President of the European Research Council, Professor Mauro Ferrari, over what he deemed to be the really desperate failure of the EU, of which he was a big fan before taking the job, to respond effectively to Covid-19 was a pretty damning move that should raise questions. I have not heard a lot in the Taoiseach's contribution or more generally about the EU's response to Covid-19. If we consider a variety of countries around the world with a variety of regimes, including Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, China, South Korea and Iceland, we realise the failure of the Union to act both collectively and as individual member states in any sort of cohesive, focused, effective way regarding Covid-19 is quite telling. Professor Ferrari hoped the European Research Council would set up a body specifically to address Covid-19 and research all sorts of areas, including strategy, the development of a vaccine and therapies, but this was essentially shot down. It is quite telling. After the budget announcement, I mentioned an extraordinary point that may have been lost, which is that the health research budget for 2021 is not a single cent greater than that for 2020. It is an extraordinary fact but it bears out Professor Ferrari's point on the complete lack of a strategy. We have argued for a zero-Covid strategy. Although the Government disagrees with that, should these matters not be debated in a serious way and should scientists not be given the resources to develop their understanding, data and information so we can make informed choices about how to deal with this pandemic? That does not seem to be happening, which is quite a damning indictment of the failure of the EU.

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