Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister of State a good afternoon. I welcome this opportunity to make a statement in advance of the European Council meeting in Brussels tomorrow and Friday. I thank the Taoiseach for outlining the agenda, which seems quite full.

I am reassured by the fact that that the pandemic is still top of the list because it is actually still with us. I am also happy it is there because Ireland has a good story to tell from a pandemic point of view. Were there imperfections and shortcomings in our response? Absolutely. The direction of travel is good, however, and there is a further tranche of reopening on Friday. We have been a success story despite all the imperfections because of a huge whole-of-society response, which has turned out to be very successful.

Following on from a pandemic point of view, I want to hammer home three points. First, it was mentioned in the opening statements that there will be increased investment for preparedness and to provide early warning and horizon scanning. I would definitely be in favour of that. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, ECDC, needs more resources. If that could be brought up and nudged forward, it would be very much appreciated. Vaccines solidarity with the rest of the world is absolute must. Again, it is in their interest. There are ethical reasons for it but there is also a self-interest. Ireland would be very vulnerable if a new strain of the disease or a new mutation in the Delta strain emerged. It is, therefore, in our interest as well as everybody else's to ensure there is vaccine solidarity.

A proposal is floating around about an international treaty on pandemics, which is being sponsored by the World Health Organization. I am very much in favour of the principle of such a thing. We must see the detail, obviously enough, but pandemics by definition are global and, therefore, the response should be global as well. It would make sense that we capture the lessons learned from this pandemic in order that if another takes place in five months, five years or 55 years’ time, we have one singular document into which we can put the lessons we have learned over the last couple of years as a response.

I echo the sentiments of some of my colleagues from an energy prices point of view. It is a massive issue and we are reasonable enough to realise that there are factors beyond our control. The world economy is opening up. There are geopolitical frictions and games at play. We appreciate that. Many speculators are making a lot of money from it as well. Perhaps there is some mechanism by which the EU could apply downward pressure on prices by taking on these speculators.

I agree that there is a short-term need to address the short-term problem.

The first frost will be landing in a few weeks' time. However, the long-term need is microgeneration of electricity and its democratisation. Some of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, grants come indirectly from Brussels but if we could increase those grants, it would certainly make a big difference. People are keen to microgenerate but they do not have the upfront cash to install the relevant equipment. We are okay in Ireland on the digital transformation agenda. The national broadband plan is eight months behind, but there are reasons for it. Cybersecurity was mentioned in the opening statement. There have been modest improvements in cybersecurity since the HSE attack a few months ago, but there is certainly much more work to do. Cyberattacks are a transnational issue. Perhaps we need an entity at European level to co-ordinate and improve our defences. I wish the Taoiseach and the Irish team well and I look forward to his update when he returns.

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