Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mandatory hotel quarantine is an important tool in our defence against the virus, particularly when the number of cases is low or, as is the case now, when dangerous variants break out. Sinn Féin will support this legislation and has tabled a number of amendments, as my colleague Deputy Cullinane outlined. The emergence of the Omicron variant is a concern and we must take appropriate measures in response. My party will support the reintroduction of mandatory hotel quarantine in exceptional circumstances for a limited period if expressly warranted by public health experts and officials, and we await that advice. Anyone who has listened to Dr. Mike Ryan or Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove of the WHO, or to the doctors and scientists in South Africa who identified the Omicron variant, will have heard that travel bans or restrictions are not the answer in and of themselves, although they might have a place, and nor is economic isolation. The answer, ultimately, is vaccination and public health measures.

In July, Dr. Mike Ryan described vaccine inequity throughout the world as an abomination. He stated:

We’ve developed highly effective vaccinations, and what’s our next move? To distribute them in an inequitable fashion so that we can stop the tragedy of the pandemic in some countries, and we will allow that pandemic to continue in so many others. It’s a tragedy and it’s an abomination that today there are frontline workers going to work in Covid wards in many countries that still have not been vaccinated. That is a disgrace.

No one is safe until everyone is safe, and the Government and its leaders are complicit in their role. In recent days, the former President and the chair of the Elders, Mary Robinson, lent her voice to the same subject. She stated:

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over. In the wake of the discovery of the Omicron variant and the risk it represents, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) deadlock over a TRIPS intellectual property waiver on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments is simply unconscionable.

Epidemiologists warned us time and again that allowing the virus to spread around the world is a recipe for new mutations to develop and that they will indiscriminately harm us all. This waiver, which has now dominated WTO talks for over a year, is a necessary global solution to end the pandemic. Yet one powerful voice at the WTO has continued to undermine this effort ...

The European Union represents the biggest roadblock to this effective solution to ramp up the supply of lifesaving vaccines, treatments and tests, hasten the end of the pandemic and put solidarity at the heart of the world’s response.

The Government is complicit in this opposition to a TRIPS waiver. Former President Robinson wrote:

By temporarily removing legal barriers preventing developing countries from producing billions of vaccines and treatments through qualified manufacturers, the waiver would suspend the monopoly control of pharmaceutical corporations, which guarantees them eye-watering profits while sacrificing lives. It would unlock the , which is still being underutilized.

Led by South Africa and India, the initiative is already supported by over a hundred countries worldwide, not to mention over , , the (WHO), and .

I have no doubt that millions of people in Ireland also support the initiative. Former President Robinson went on to state:

United States President Joe Biden just days ago, and has urged progress in response to the new variant. Yet the EU continues to meet this lifesaving proposal with intransigence.

It is shameful, disgraceful and disgusting. It must change.

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