Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

First, I challenge the narrative being put forward here by some contributors that what we have here is simply an issue of a lack of technical competence at an EU level when it comes to procurement. I wish that was all that was at stake here. I think, however, we are paying the price for the lack of investment and co-ordination at an EU level in public health over many years. The European Union was very late in negotiating contracts for vaccines and that has resulted from years of neglect in this area. Before the pandemic, how often did ministers for health meet at EU level? They met twice a year. If we look at most other areas, and let us take agriculture as an example, the relevant ministers often meet monthly. Holding meetings twice a year, however, was the level of effort that was put into co-ordination of health at EU level.

Turning to health competences and public health at EU level, those aspects are very weak. If we want collective structures to work, we must put in effort and resources to ensure that happens. We must strengthen European health agencies, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, ECDC, the European Medicines Agency, EMA, and European co-operation on health and technology assessment. We must also ensure we have much better co-ordination and a much better European health response mechanism for emergencies. We must also have a European health insurance fund in place for rare diseases, because no one country can address these issues on its own. In addition, we should have minimum healthcare standards across EU member states as well as EU competence in respect of transnational pandemics. Those areas must be strengthened. Regarding the EU budget for healthcare, last May €9.4 billion was proposed for a new EU health fund. It was cut to €1.7 billion in July. What is the position of our Government on that issue? What size of budget are we supporting for EU healthcare funds?

There is no question that popular support for the European Union is completely reliant on the big issues which affect people's lives. The roll-out of the vaccines and how that process is being handled is going to affect for many years to come how people perceive the European Union and what level of popular support there will be for it. At this stage, we are only a few steps away from a potential vaccine trade war, where exports of vaccines from the European Union would be suspended and supplies of vaccine ingredients into the EU could be blocked. The result would be a lose-lose situation, and it is the last thing that we need in the fight against Covid-19. We need an approach which will combat the vaccine nationalism that has already been very damaging.

The Taoiseach has been outspoken in saying that no barriers should be put in place which could hamper the production of vaccines. I agree with the Taoiseach on this, but let us be clear about the position of the Irish Government regarding barriers to vaccine production and roll-out globally and the EU's position in that regard. I state that because the position of the European Union and the Irish Government on this matter is that the Irish Government is not supporting a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights which would enable a speedier roll-out of vaccine production globally. The Taoiseach is right to quote the WHO and state that none of us are safe until all of us are safe.

However, we need that commitment to be extended to waiving intellectual property rights temporarily so that vaccine production and roll-out can be maximised globally. We should not have the current situation where production is not at the level it could be if those intellectual property rights were waived. We are in the midst of a global pandemic. It is unbelievable that the reality of this situation has not hit home and that not everyone has grasped that the best way to fight a global pandemic is through maximising the global response to the virus. If we are serious about doing that, it means waiving the intellectual property rights in this regard. There is no excuse for this situation.

Concerning our own narrow self-interest, I do not believe this approach of not waiving intellectual property rights will work out well because the biggest threat to us after we get our population vaccinated will be from variants which will still be spreading around the globe as a result of insufficient levels of vaccination. Therefore, I urge the Irish Government to change its position on this issue and to take a leadership role in this area tomorrow at the European Council meeting.

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