Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Last week, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney stated that we have to ensure that we are not protecting intellectual property rights in a way that is resulting in mass loss of life, and that we need to share know-how and capacity. I agree with the Minister but the words have no meaning unless we act on it. That means, between now and the next meeting of the World Trade Organization, WTO, this House would welcome the Taoiseach making contact with Joe Biden and the European Union and urging them to drop the intellectual property rights on the vaccine in order to support the motion that emanates, interestingly enough, from India, the country that is currently suffering the most. India and South Africa have the motion in front of the WTO to relax the intellectual property rights to allow the production of vaccines at scale.

The Taoiseach must be as distressed as everybody else was looking at the scenes coming from India. It is horrible. However, it is not only about India. There has to be a motive of selfishness on the part of the Taoiseach and Joe Biden, which is to protect all of us. Because it is a pandemic, by its nature, none of us is safe until every man, woman and child in India is safe also. It makes no sense to continue to impose intellectual property rights on vaccines in the middle of a global pandemic. It can only make sense to a greedy, selfish cohort of capitalists who see this as an opportunity to make fast profits. I ask the Taoiseach to put Ireland on the right side of history and make that phone call to Joe Biden and the European Union.

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