Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate some of what has been said in relation to the need for global solidarity. We all see the Delta variant involves an element of chickens coming home to roost in relation to the failure to have a global solution to the vaccination problem. We need to put that in place as soon as possible.

I add my voice in support of the need for a TRIPS waiver. We are told by others at a European level that there is no need for this and it is a misnomer. If that is the case, can they offer us a solution for the developing world? Deputy Paul Murphy and many others said that if we talk about COVAX being a solution only for 20% of the population in the developing world, we can guess what sort of prices will be charged to the remainder and to developing countries that do not have those sort of resources. That might make sense for a pharmaceutical company looking to make money. Unfortunately, for world health it is a disaster. We will leave breeding grounds for more variants. We have seen with every variant it becomes much worse. They are the rules of virology and epidemiology. The virus adapts to make itself more transmissible and, in this case, it looks like it is also far more dangerous. We are dealing with the outworkings of that.

I raise another matter on which we need to have conversations across Europe. I spoke with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, earlier. He had indicated a possible softening of the Government position on antigen testing.

A considerable number of people in the wider world, in the scientific world and even in this illustrious Chamber believe that antigen testing is a tool that we are missing but one that could help with a solution for the hospitality sector. We are well beyond the time of holding pilots. Pilot programmes have been carried out throughout Europe. We need to examine the information from those and see what is applicable as soon as possible.

We welcome the solidarity that Ireland has been shown, particularly on the Irish protocol, but we need this issue dealt with from the point of view of it being the only show in town. It is destabilising the North at this point in time, where some people see the British Government using certain language that probably sits well with its own base and leads people to believe that the Irish protocol will be done away with. We see it in the same way as we see the Good Friday Agreement, in that they are international agreements and are here to stay. We need to find solutions to people's problems. We support the Irish Government in that regard.

I welcome the Narrow Water bridge project. Has the shared island unit discussed seeking European moneys for its delivery? There have been many false dawns. We need this essential connectivity between north Louth and south Down.

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