Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. This is a European competence, as a trade issue. The position of the European Union is that compulsory licensing is a better approach than the TRIPS waiver approach. However, neither is a silver bullet and neither will result in vaccines being produced all of a sudden on their own. What is required is a comprehensive response. That is what the Government and I support. We will consider any proposal that is presented to the WTO that would result in more vaccines being produced. As was the case with small pox and polio, we will not defeat this illness on a national basis. It must be done on a global basis.

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