Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Repeated references to Covid-19 in the Global Ireland progress report reaffirm the reality that in our interdependent world, no one is safe from Covid-19 until everyone is safe. A motion calling on the Government to immediately support a trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights, TRIPS, waiver on Covid-19 vaccines was passed by the Seanad last month. Throughout the pandemic, political leaders have correctly argued that we need to trust the science and listen to medical experts and clinicians. Nevertheless, the Taoiseach's Government has set its face against the arguments of the WHO and so many experts on delivering vaccine equity. Equally unjust is the European Commission blocking the introduction of a TRIPS waiver on Covid-19 vaccines and technology at the WTO's TRIPS council.

A doctor living in my constituency wrote to me last week, reflecting on how appreciative she is to live in a country where a Covid-19 vaccine is readily available but saying that the arrival of the Omicron variant highlighted both the injustice and the real and remaining public health risk of global vaccine inequity. She also noted that more than 100 companies across Africa, Asia and Latin America have the capacity to produce mRNA vaccines. The proposal for a TRIPS waiver to remove barriers to vaccine production in the global south has the support of more than 100 countries, including the United States, yet EU governments continue to oppose the waiver. On my behalf and behalf of my doctor constituent, and so many others, I ask the Taoiseach to formally back the waiver and encourage the European Union forcefully to do likewise.

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