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

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the decision by the Saudi Arabian authorities in respect of Abdulrahman al-Sahdan. I will pursue that. There are a range of issues around human rights and freedom of assembly. I will discuss the matter with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and our ambassador will engage to support the avoidance of what would be a very severe penalty and the release of the individual concerned.

A new development, although not unprecedented during the last year or so, is the degree to which Deputies accuse An Garda Síochána or the Garda Commissioner of political policing. This has nothing to do with the question about the European committee. The accusation should be withdrawn. It is a very unfair accusation to make and it seeks to undermine the objectivity and operational independence of An Garda Síochána and the Garda Commissioner who have been given a very unenviable task in terms of the current public health situation.

Deputy Kelly raised the recovery and resilience fund and the €915 million available to Ireland to draw down in the first phase. The second tranche is in accordance with various economic criteria. The Deputy will recall that these include models of economic performance in GDP and employment. Ireland's economy has been growing in GDP terms in the last two years which may impact on our second phase drawdown. We are close to submitting a plan and have been engaged with the Commission on this.

The two key themes of the recovery and resilience plan are creating jobs in the green economy and digital transformation. The Government, and I personally, have been keen to ensure there will be significant inclusion around health digital transformation. For decades, we have been talking about bringing health into the modern era. The Covid pandemic has illustrated the degree to which health has caught up in some respects. We developed very good technology very quickly, including the Covid app and even the vaccine technology system. There will be provision in the plan for a contribution to e-health, in particular, to take a once-off opportunity using this fund to try to accelerate technology application in our health system. That is a clear objective.

Deputies Gannon and Cairns raised the issue of India. We have provided significant resources. We are a small country but we will continue to do so. It is devastating what is happening in India. It illustrates the danger of the virus and how rapidly it can get out of control.

On the issue around intellectual property, we need to examine this in some detail. I can recall in 2003 when SARS was potentially becoming a global pandemic, the world had zilch by way of manufacturing capacity or co-operation among pharmaceutical companies or between pharmaceutical companies and governments.

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