Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute. I welcome what was set out in the Taoiseach's statement but what was absent is notable. I echo what Deputy Howlin said. The time we are being given is not sufficient to discuss the range of topics covered in the nine-page statement. There are notable absences as it did not deal with Ethiopia or Tigray, although I understand the Minister of State will come back on this. This has been an ongoing conflict for more than a year with 1.7 million people displaced in Tigray alone and thousands outside in the Sudan. It is not mentioned. It was not worthy of a line except that it will be dealt with by the Minister of State at the end of the debate.

Another matter not dealt with is Palestine and I will come back to this. Another issue not looked at is the TRIPS waiver, which has been mentioned by everyone. The statement by the unelected President of the European Commission that mandatory vaccination is on the way and must be considered was also not mentioned. I hope that when the Taoiseach goes to Brussels he will repeat that he is not in favour of mandatory vaccinations, as he said a few days ago. I make my comments as always in the knowledge that 5,788 people have died in this country. Today there are 4,688 cases with 108 people in ICU and 492 in hospital. I make these comments because I believe we are facing a serious public health crisis. We have been doing so since we recognised Covid in March, although it was here prior to this. Vaccination is just one part of the overall response. I have made this clear every time I have spoken.

As far back as a year ago, South Africa and India called for a TRIPS waiver. We are very interested in pushing vaccination whereby we get booster and further boosters while ignoring the rest of the world. I understand fewer than 7% of people in low-income countries have had a vaccine. We can pick many figures to illustrate our arguments. The Minister of State will have to accept we have utterly let down the countries outside of rich Ireland and rich Europe while we keep pushing that we need more and more boosters for the richer countries with the deeper pockets. It is totally unacceptable. Many organisations, including Amnesty, have asked us to introduce a waiver for a while. It would mean a few pharmaceutical companies could not hold a monopoly on production and cost. It would lead to more production.

I have little time to get this out. With regard to vaccination we have utterly ignored the Meenan report, which was done not in the context of Covid but on the necessity to have some type of redress or compensation scheme for injuries from vaccination. We never considered it. There has been no discussion whatsoever on what point we will drop the Covid pass, which is utterly discriminatory. There is no evidence to show it has worked. It is inculcating a hatred rather than bringing everyone on board in a public health crisis.

In the time I have left I want to discuss Palestine. There has been no mention of what the Israeli Government is doing with regard to the occupied territories. I am tired of standing up and asking the Government, as my colleagues have done, to deal with the Israeli Government, among many other things, designating as terrorist organisations six human rights organisations, two of which we fund. This has gone a step further. If the organisations want to appeal the designation, they have to stop functioning. This was by military order. Between January and December this year, 86 Palestinian children were killed in the occupied Palestinian territories. As a mother, female and Deputy, I find this totally unacceptable. I find the designation of six organisations unacceptable. I find it unacceptable that we continue to express concern but we do nothing else with regard to Israel. However, we highlight the Ukraine and China, and rightly so, but what we do is extremely selective.

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said Brussels had not received convincing evidence from Israel about the terrorism designations and that it was looking for more information. Two months later, there is no sign of more information. We have asked our Minister for Foreign Affairs whether the EU has evidence but we have not received an answer. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the designation as terrorist organisations is an attack on human rights defenders. We speak about human rights. The Taoiseach's statement mentioned human rights. However, we make a mockery of language. HE stated, "The analysis underpinning the work to date on the strategic compass is that the global security situation at present is marked by growing strategic competition and complex security threats." This is an absolute insult to the English language. More importantly and significantly, it is an insult to the democratic process.

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