Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I sincerely thank colleagues from across the House for their engagement on this issue. I thank them for their heartfelt, genuine and intellectually rigorous contributions. So many of the points I wanted to make about why compulsory licensing does not work were made extremely well by others, including Senator Garvey.

This is a crucial diplomatic failure for the European Union. I am also passionate about the European Union. I worry when I see the Union losing credibility internationally by pursuing a policy that may have two years of gains for some companies but will lose the trust of much of the global south. I will not go through all of these points because I will not have time. They have been made extremely well.

I am glad the Minister is not pressing the amendment. Frankly, it did a disservice to the Government Senators who have spoken and the Government's own position. The Minister of State, Deputy Troy, talked over eight months ago about wanting Ireland to take a stand. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has expressed personal support for a TRIPS waiver. Even the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, spoke of having an open mind.

I have to challenge one of the points which is extremely disingenuous, namely, the idea that we are waiting for a WTO proposal. This motion relates directly to the negotiations around the development of a WTO proposal. The European Commission represents us in the Council negotiations to develop proposals. There have been proposals on the table since October 2020. In June, that complicated discussion teasing out the text was meant to take place. I wanted Ireland to take a stronger stance and to speak out in favour of a TRIPS waiver. This amendment would have taken us backwards. It refers only to the alternative proposal, which is a proposal against a TRIPS waiver. That is the problem. That is what was in the language here. It also speaks specifically about only engaging in the issues of flexibilities within TRIPS. There is capacity, strategically, not in a uniform or messy way but through text, where different outcomes may happen in different countries, to temporarily waive the application of the international intellectual property regime. This would allow smaller and developing countries to take the actions while maintaining, if they so choose, the national intellectual property measures which we would have in Ireland. This is not a fall-off-a-cliff measure. A TRIPS waiver is the sensible thing which allows us to expedite vaccine roll-out.

On the issue of time, we should have started in spring but we certainly should be starting now so that in three months we will have more progress. It is possible. The mRNA vaccines, which are the most effective, are chemical rather than biologic and in that sense can be developed with support. We should not be sending countries back to the starting point. On a proposal from the WTO, its director-general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, appealed for a resolution in February 2022 and urged that we come out of that meeting with a TRIPS waiver so the clock can start on delivering the solutions which everybody wants.

I thank the Minister of State for his engagement. I ask him to engage with the likes of the People's Vaccine alliance, which has been requesting meetings with Ministers but has not yet been given one. This is a really important moment for us. It was mentioned that there is an important meeting tomorrow. Would it not be a powerful thing if we sent a signal from Ireland tonight that might influence that meeting tomorrow? It might be just the small thing that tips the balance towards a genuine solution being moved forward. Then maybe we could have a tiny fraction of the optimism we felt this time last year when we thought the world might work together towards a solution. Let Ireland be part of that in a positive way.

I thank the Minister of State for not pressing the amendment. I urge colleagues to support the motion if they can. It is really important and it should be passed by this House tonight.