Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would love to hear the voice of the Tánaiste on this because we need leadership on it. I understand he is in possession of a letter from more than 18 non-governmental organisations, including the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. They have pointed out that less than 20% of people in the poorest countries are fully vaccinated. At the same time high-income countries account for 75% of total known supplied details of all existing therapeutics. Within a minute one cannot read out the letter. The NGOs are deeply disappointed that the WTO TRIPS decision, made on 17 June and endorsed by the Irish Government, was not comprehensive.

We are speaking about health. There is no point in making Ireland safe if other countries are not safe. If we endorsed a system that enriched a small number of pharmaceutical companies beyond belief on public money let us learn from it. Let us stop praising the wonderful pharmaceutical companies that did this on public money. Perhaps at some point the Minister of State might tell us how much public money went into it. He might also tell us how many vaccine doses we have given to COVAX. I do not expect him to have the answers now. We are constantly trying to get information. At this point I am just asking for leadership to let our voice be heard.

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