Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

The fundamental position of Government is in respect of supporting IP and the proper exploitation of intellectual property. We make no apologies for that and I never have. As far as I am concerned, we need to have consistent research in medicine and to facilitate, reward and incentivise investment in medicine. Otherwise, we will reduce the number of companies investing in such critical research. The industry in the European Union has, arguably, declined relative to the US and others because of a failure of investment in the fundamental EU pharmaceutical industry. There are some champions but not enough.

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