Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

We had a hearing on this in the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment last week. What we heard from the representatives of Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam and the pharmaceutical industry was shocking. Médecins Sans Frontières said literally millions of people have died as a consequence of the failure to give a TRIPS waiver. We heard about the almost $100 billion in public funding given to the pharmaceutical industry to develop these vaccines and about the significant profits, which were not contested by the pharmaceutical industry. Three of the biggest companies are making $1,000 per minute in profits from the vaccines. There is massive profiteering.

Yesterday at our private meeting we agreed unanimously, including Deputies from Government-supporting parties, to send a letter to the Tánaiste asking him to agree to a Government position in favour of a TRIPS waiver. The committee's position was clear. It will be interesting to see what the Government says in response.

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