Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The least Deputies are entitled to is the courtesy of being allowed to make our points. Perhaps the most important thing we could do today is to agree to de-politicise the entire vaccine issue. Brian MacCraith, the chairman of the high-level task force in relation to the vaccination programme, will appear tomorrow before the Joint Committee on Health. The central theme of the strategy that will be launched today by the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, along with the Chief Medical Officer, the head of the HSE and the head of the task force is transparency, openness and also the principle of informed consent on behalf of citizens. Nothing will be hidden here in terms of the development of the vaccine or the issues pertaining to it. It is all about open transparency. In many ways, the personnel involved at the highest level are open to answering questions from anybody in whatever forum or forums. That is an important point I have to make today. It is not doing justice to the work that is being put into this. The strategy in terms of rolling out the vaccine was endorsed by Cabinet today for the first time. It is a comprehensive strategy. Likewise, the implementation plan is comprehensive.

I have referenced the indemnity issue on a number of occasions in the House. It was necessary and the advanced purchasing was necessary in terms of giving the firepower, if one likes, to develop the vaccines. This is a collective public welfare and well-being issue not just here, but across Europe and globally. What Deputies are witnessing is unique collaboration between the private sector, through the pharmaceutical companies, and the State. Governments do not produce vaccines. They do not have the manufacturing capacity to produce vaccines. That collaboration has resulted in an extraordinary acceleration of the vaccine development process through co-ordination and open books and so on in terms of the data, as well as the fact that the regulatory authorities have watched this from the very beginning so that they are in a position to make a decision more speedily than perhaps they would ordinarily have done. That has all been well documented and published. The only objective here is to get a safe vaccine available as quickly as possible. That is the only agenda. What other agenda could there be?

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