Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

In response to a parliamentary question last week, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, stated:

I have an open mind on the alternative suggestion of a TRIPS waiver. I have always said that if we receive a WTO proposal [in writing], we will examine it. That has not happened yet.

This is misleading, to say the least. The first formal proposal from India and South Africa to the WTO came in October 2020. As for the open mind, why is the Irish Government lobbying at European Council level against a TRIPS waiver? It is absolutely scandalous and causing the deaths of people around the world, including in this country, owing to the spread of new variants such as Omicron. We cannot afford more delays, variants, deaths and restrictions; we need to scrap the patents now and share the vaccine recipes worldwide. The vast majority of countries in the world have backed the call for a TRIPS waiver. Even the United States has backed it.

I want to deal with a different issue, that is, the crucial call for the cancellation of eurozone countries' debt to the European Central Bank. The call, published across Europe last week, has been made by academics, activists, trade unionists and public representatives on the left, including the People Before Profit Deputies. The reason for the call is that public debt has expanded by over 20% across eurozone countries. This is because the governments refuse to go after the increased wealth and profits of the super wealthy that accrued during Covid. Instead, there is an increase in debt. That debt will be used later to say we need fiscal discipline and a return to neoliberal policy. Instead of these, we need a simple bookkeeping operation: cancel the eurozone countries' debt to the European Central Bank now.

See this speech in context