Dáil debates

Thursday, 6 May 2021

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements

 

4:50 pm

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I start by offering the Deputy my congratulations on the birth of his daughter some time ago and on the future birth this year. My wife and I had our first two children very close together. While I congratulate the Deputy, we might have a conversation later about coping mechanisms for the very long tunnel that he is about to enter.

In terms of the 24-hour vaccination centres, this came from the minutes of a NPHET meeting where it was discussing the issue and may have contacted the HSE about it. We may or may not need 24-hour centres. There is significant capacity in place between the GPs, the vaccination centres, many of which are running seven days a week and very long hours, and the pharmacy network, which is yet to be brought online. If it is needed to run the vaccine centres 24-hours a day, we will absolutely do that. At present, we do not need to as there is a lot of capacity in place.

In terms of the waiver for intellectual property rights, personally I am in favour of it. I do not think it is a silver bullet, however.

I do not think that if we do it, we will suddenly have manufacturing of these very complex compounds all over the place. The EU is setting up a task force to look at all the bottlenecks. There are issues around manufacturing sites, the supply of raw materials and distribution, particularly as some of the vaccines must be stored at very low temperatures. The Government is working with the EU on it. The EU's view is that within the existing TRIPS agreement there is latitude for governments to proceed but, to be honest, a whole-system solution is required. What I and the Government want to see is a global programme that gets everybody vaccinated.

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