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

Deputy Haughey raised the issue of conflict, Covid and climate. I pay tribute to our ambassador at the UN, Geraldine Byrne Nason, and her team. They have performed excellently on behalf of the country in advancing our agenda, particularly during the presidency of the Security Council.

In terms of the motion and the theme we are moving, there were reservations from Russia, India and China to different degrees. That work is ongoing and the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, and the Minister, Deputy Coveney are also working on that linking of climate with security as a core responsibility of the UN. It was well received on the day and much proactive work went into it in advance of the meeting and will continue. In the nature of UN politics it will progress and, in my view, ultimately be successful.

On vaccine inequity, I accept that no one is safe until everybody is safe. That is a basic mantra. The European Union is the largest exporter of Covid-19 vaccines to the world. It will continue efforts to increase global vaccine production capacity to meet global needs. Since last December, over 800 million doses have been exported to over 130 countries by the European Union. It is the only continent that had no export bans.

For Africa, what Europe is saying is that we will provide €1 billion in support of production within Africa of mRNA vaccines, which will give that continent long-term sustainable production capacity for vaccines and medicines that will be based on the mRNA platform. That is the most effective way to do this. We are working with other states in the WTO on flexibilities in the TRIPS Agreement but there was much sloganeering around that which would not have achieved one extra vaccine. I am interested in getting vaccines into the arms of people in low-cost countries. Europe is again leading the way in concrete measures.

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