Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, we do not. The Commission will help to develop the capacity and the technology transfers to enable them to produce on home soil, but this takes time. In the interim, we must get the vaccine supplied to Africa as quickly as we possibly can.

Deputy Haughey raised a number of issues. There will be a mid-term review in respect of the strategy. On the Security Council, I commend the work of the Irish ambassador to the UN, Ms Geraldine Byrne Nason, and the team there. I was delighted to meet with them in September. I was struck by the idealism and commitment of the young civil servants working on the Irish team in the UN in New York. It would give one hope for the future of this country that we have such quality people working on that UN Security Council brief, and learning so much. They are working on some very difficult issues, from Syria to Ethiopia, and having an impact at the highest levels of international diplomacy. We must continue to resource that and work very hard in our presidency of the United Nations Security Council.

I take Deputy Boyd Barrett's point. Ireland's reputation is one of the countries with the highest numbers of recipients of the Nobel prize in literature and per capitaI believe we have the highest number of Booker prize winners. We support the arts and there has been an increase this year. I am aware that the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin is working to try to create more embedded structures to support artists. The first rationale for this is to try to develop creativity within our own country and within our own society, and to prioritise the arts and the flowering of the arts so that young people would aspire to be artists, writers, performers, musicians and so on. We need to create a sustainable base for that. While I would not understate the progress that has been made in this regard over the decades, more can always be done. We must also take lessons from the Covid-19 experience.

I recall organising the first Global Irish Economic Forum in 2009 when I was the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The people of the Irish diaspora who were involved in senior positions across the globe came back in and did a bit of work over that weekend. They came back with the idea that the most important calling card for Ireland is its creativity and, dare I say it, its prowess in the arts and creativity. These were people who may not ordinarily have agreed with Deputy Boyd Barrett's financial or economic positions, and it is interesting that this came from them. That has never left me.

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