Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

It seems that the most recent wave of Covid-19, caused by the Omicron variant, has passed its peak in Ireland, although the virus continues to rage in many other countries. I thank our front-line workers, who kept society together and kept it going. I offer my solidarity and sympathy to those who died, their families and, importantly, the people of Ireland because, as I have said many times, they have listened closely to NPHET and have been way ahead of the Government guidelines. We have an opportunity now to take certain actions to help us prepare for new variants and waves of infection and, I hope, to avoid the necessity of a return to restrictions or to have further lockdowns.

There are three key areas in which action is needed. First, we have to recognise that we entered the pandemic two years ago with a public health system that was not fit for purpose and that remains so. The recent revelations regarding mental healthcare for children and young adults in south Kerry are just one example of the effects of years of underfunding and under-resourcing. It is a system in crisis. The many problems cannot be resolved overnight. It is not just a question of funding, although that is badly needed, it is also a question of dealing with the fundamental reforms outlined in the Sláintecare report. There is now no excuse for the lack of urgency or the foot-dragging by the Department of Health and the HSE. Sláintecare must be prioritised, with clear targets set and achieved.

The second issue relates to ventilation. We need a national plan to monitor schools, hospitals, nursing homes, all public buildings, hospitality areas and workplaces in order to ensure they are properly ventilated. Where buildings or areas within them do not allow for adequate ventilation, specialised equipment must be installed to bring in fresh air and expel stale air. We need an inspection regime to monitor, in particular, workplaces and hospitality venues. If there are not enough inspectors, there are thousands of health and safety officers in trade unions in workplaces throughout the country and we could approach them to ask whether they would play a part in this.

Third, vaccine inequality must end. It is a killer. People have died because they did not get a vaccine or because they could not afford oxygen that was not provided by underfunded and under-resourced public health systems throughout the world. Vaccine inequality is not just obscene, it is madness. While large numbers of people in middle and low-income countries are unvaccinated, new variants of this killer disease are inevitable. It does not make sense, unless someone is a big investor in or an executive at Pfizer or Moderna. Within a week of the arrival of Omicron, these two companies saw their share prices increase by more than $10 billion, with the CEO of Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, adding more than $800 million to his personal wealth.

I want to end with a quote from Tim Bierley, a pharma campaigner at Global Justice Now, who stated:

Pharmaceutical companies knew that grotesque levels of vaccine inequality would create prime conditions for new variants to emerge. They let Covid-19 spread unabated in low and middle-income countries. And now the same pharma execs and shareholders are making a killing from a crisis they helped to create. It’s utterly obscene.

Human Rights Watch and Médecins Sans Frontières have identified over 100 factories which could produce mRNA vaccines if intellectual property barriers were removed. The blocking of these is absurd.

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