Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to Senator Higgins for drafting this motion. As Senator Gavan has said, she went out of her way to draft a motion that Senators on the other side of the House could support. This is not a matter of party political differences but a moral issue among a group of humans sitting in this Chamber in the middle of a pandemic.

With Covid-19, the ultimate question is when we will end the pandemic. We have asked this of the Government when we have seen much legislation come through the House in recent months. All of that legislation is part of the armoury in fighting Covid-19 but there is a gaping hole in our response, which is a truly collective, internationalist and global effort in vaccines. We pride ourselves on being a charitable country and the land of 100,000 welcomes. Charity does not stand for anything, however, if we do not have justice. This motion asks not for charity but justice in ensuring vaccine equity across the world.

The reaction to the emerging Omicron variant two weeks ago encapsulated the problem with approaching this from a charitable perspective. Our approach has become fear-based, leading to travel bans, particularly if the variant comes predominantly from the global south. We did not have the quick movement to travel bans when the Delta variant was coming from the UK.

We know from the scientific advice across the world that what will stop the emergence of the variant is access to vaccines. We have warned repeatedly by the World Health Organization and epidemiologists that the single biggest factor in the development of new variants is allowing the virus to spread indiscriminately around the world. The TRIPS waiver, which we have been discussing for well over a year, is vital to ensuring vaccines are available at a global level for all those who need them. The time for talking, debating and amending in parliaments across the world should be long over.

Gordon Brown, who is now an adviser to the World Health Organization, noted a few months ago that 40% of the Covid-19 deaths on the African continent had occurred since August. At the start of August, we had nearly finished vaccinating our adult population here. The World Health Organization recently highlighted that six times more booster vaccines had been administered daily around the globe than primary doses in lower income countries. In those circumstances, our booster campaign should not be a source of national pride but rather an example of how we have failed other countries. While it is wonderful that we are able to give out booster vaccines and keep our population safe, the question that strikes me is whether there is any point in giving boosters when we will be in this rodeo again in a couple of months as more variants emerge. It is short-term thinking and we are looking at events through the lens of self-interest in seeking to end this global crisis.

The TRIPS waiver is a question of suspending international property rights and prioritising the saving of lives over profits. The industry, funded by national governments and taxpayers, has not shared the property rights voluntarily. In the absence of that, a TRIPS waiver is vital. We could look at another pandemic, as during the HIV pandemic a waiver on trade in intellectual property rights was used to boost drug supply. Such a process should be implemented again. The facilitation of generic production in countries like India and South Africa helped developing countries through the HIV and AIDS pandemic. We know such a process can work well.

It is simply the fundamentally right action to take in every respect. It is not just the West that must live with Covid-19 and it is not just the West that is currently facing the worst impact of Covid-19. We must increase the rates of vaccination worldwide. We know at this stage because we have had waves of the virus that as variants emerge, none of us is safe until all of us are safe. We must take collective and global action. We are facing into a future of never-ending variants, and that is a consequence of failing to vaccinate as many people as we can everywhere. Solidarity and collective action will end the pandemic and make this virus endemic. That must be at the heart of Ireland's response.

I am disappointed that the response to a very balanced and well-worded motion from Senator Higgins has been that a Government amendment, albeit one that did not originate among Government Senators, has been moved which effectively renders the motion useless for Members voting in the House. I echo the call of previous speakers. If Senators cannot vote against the Government amendment, they should go missing and show people their intention by simply not being here.