Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I welcome my friend and colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Colm Brophy, to the House.

Frances Black (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for taking time to discuss the Palestinian vaccination programme. I am aware Ireland has contributed and plans to spend €50 million in support of global public health, which includes COVAX. Our money is being used to fund this initiative. We have a responsibility to ensure equitable access to Covid vaccines. Ireland should be actively addressing obstacles to equitable access, such as Israeli discriminatory healthcare practice. What progress has been made to vaccinate Palestinians under this programme?

Israel's decision to exclude Palestinians from its vaccination distribution programme is not the first time Israel has denied Palestinians lifesaving medical treatments. We are aware from WHO reports, including one conducted in 2017, that only 54% of Gaza patients who applied for permits to access healthcare in Israel and the West Bank received approval. The report shows 54 Palestinians, 46 of whom had cancer, died in 2017 following denial of or delay in their permits.

Even by Israel's poor humanitarian standards, denying Palestinians access to lifesaving medication seems callous. It is insulting to repeatedly hear praise for Israel's vaccination roll out success when the reality is very different. It has minutely controlled their lives while denying any meaningful responsibility for their welfare.

Having regard to the vast funding we give to COVAX, we need to ensure our Government calls for the removal any barriers to access. It is our prerogative to understand where our funding is going and where access to this funding is being obstructed. Amnesty International, among many other organisations, condemned the Israeli Government's decision to bar Palestinians from receiving the vaccine. It described the Israeli action as evidence of the institutionalised discrimination that defines Israeli Government policy towards Palestinians.

There is no legal or moral justification for Israel's action. The fourth Geneva Convention asserts that any occupying power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining the medical and hospital establishments and services with particular reference to taking the preventative measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Even the Oslo Accords oblige both sides to co-operate in combatting epidemics and assist each other in times of emergency, having regard to the countless examples of discrimination and barriers to access necessary medicines.

How will we encourage equitable access for Palestinians when Israel continues to be praised by the international media? The situation in Gaza is dire - I was there and it was an horrific experience to see the people there. Gaza suffers from electricity cuts that last 12 hours per day. Thanks to Israel's air, land and sea siege, as well as multiple military assaults on a crowded enclave, there is a severe shortage of medicine and medical equipment along with significant poverty and unemployment. According to the Palestinian health ministry, the territories have been in financial crisis, leaving them next to no funds to purchase vaccine doses. Quarantining and maintaining sanitation in Gaza is extremely difficult.

We need to understand where our funding is going. In this blatant barrier to access the benefits of our funding, it is paramount we condemn Israeli discriminatory practices and understand what the Department has done to put an end to illegal barriers to accessing the vaccines, which has been and continues to be supported by Irish funding.

I ask the Minister of State what more we can do to ensure equitable access to vaccinations for Palestinians in the occupied territories. I welcome the opportunity for the Minister of State to put on record that Ireland will step up to its responsibility to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for Palestinians.

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Black for raising this important matter. Ensuring there are vaccines and that they can be distributed equitably has been at the centre of Ireland's global public health and development assistance responses to the pandemic. The development of vaccines has been remarkably fast.

However, the vaccine roll out is complex, as we are aware, with countries at different stages of vaccine approval and global supply shortages. This means that access to Covid-19 vaccines varies widely between countries, often reflecting income levels.It is important too to invest in the capacity of healthcare systems, so that vaccines, once approved and received, can be delivered to people in a timely and safe manner.

The principle underpinning our approach to that equitable vaccine distribution is both the right thing and the smart thing in helping protect the most vulnerable everywhere and in also protecting ourselves. That is why Ireland is a strong supporter of the COVAX facility as the best way to achieve an equitable allocation of vaccines to low and middle-income countries, places such as the occupied Palestinian territories, according to an agreed set of governing principles developed by the World Health Organization.

COVAX centralises the procurement and allocation of vaccines so that the unit price of vaccines for less well-off countries is minimised. Working with partners, it ensures that needles, personal protective equipment, PPE, and other necessary ancillaries are also procured and distributed. Housed within the Global Vaccines Alliance, Gavi, COVAX aims to deliver 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to 92 low and middle-income countries. It has also negotiated options for a further 1 billion doses.

On 3 February COVAX confirmed that the occupied Palestinian territory was a priority participant in its programme and would receive 277,000 vaccine doses in quarter 1 and quarter 2 of 2021. It is expected that the Palestinian Authority will shortly receive its first COVAX consignment, following quickly on the first COVAX vaccine delivery shipped this week to Africa. Given the importance the Government attaches to equitable access to vaccines, Irish Aid last week allocated an additional €5 million support to the global vaccine effort. Some €4 million of that allocation went to COVAX for vaccine procurement and distribution and €1 million to the World Health Organization for its role in ensuring fairness and transparency.

As the Senator outlined, this will bring Ireland Aid's investment in global public health in 2021 to more than €50 million, which includes support to Gavi and the Global Fund, whose work is essential in ensuring that public health systems can mount vaccine campaigns.

There is widespread global support for COVAX. The EU announced that it would double its contribution to the initiative from €500 million to €1 billion. When taken with the commitments of individual member states, that will bring the EU pledge to COVAX to €2.2 billion. In addition, the US has pledged $4 billion, $2 billion of which it has made available for early disbursement.

Ireland continues to monitor issues around vaccine roll out in the occupied Palestinian territory mindful of the unique challenges that this context presents. The Palestinian Authority launched its own vaccination programme on 2 February administering doses to front-line healthcare workers, although it is very concerning that the programme is being suspended due to supply shortages. However, I am hopeful that with the impending delivery of the first COVAX consignment and the approval of new vaccines, availability and distribution to the occupied Palestinian territories will improve in the second quarter of 2021. Separate to the COVAX mechanism, 44,000 vaccine doses have been provided to the occupied Palestinian territory to date: 2,000 doses from Israel, 10,000 from Russia and 20,000 from the UAE to Gaza. Israel recently announced it will vaccinate 100,000 Palestinians who work in Israel, with that programme beginning this week.

The Government remains mindful of the importance of an equitable roll-out of vaccines in the occupied Palestinian territories, and all other developing contexts. I can assure the Senator of our continued attention to this issue in the months ahead.

Frances Black (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. It is imperative to remember at this time that despite the Palestinian Authority and Hamas supposedly being the official governments of the West Bank and Gaza, there is no doubt that Israel is really in charge. Israel controls the borders, currency, central bank and even collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, PA. It maintains the right to carry out military operations on Palestinian land and controls the amount of freedom, or lack thereof, that Palestinians are granted.

Israel continues to contravene the legal agreements made in the Geneva Convention. This House has a duty to give the full story and shine a light on its illegal and discriminatory barriers to access the Covid vaccine. I urge the Minister of State's Department to engage with COVAX to ensure Palestinians receive their supplies in a time-sensitive manner. I urge the Government not to exalt Israel's vaccine regime but condemn its discriminatory practice against the Palestinians.

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator again for her contribution and for raising the matter. It is important to put on record that we are engaging with COVAX all the time. COVAX falls within my area and I am constantly engaging with them on vaccine distribution in a general context. I fully take on board the importance of fair and equitable access, particularly for Palestinians. COVAX also has to operate very much within the international context of ensuring that for the millions of people around our planet there is fair and equitable access to vaccines. It is something we as a Government are committed to and engage all the time with COVAX on.

We will continue to play our part to ensure fair and equitable access for Palestinians and our partners in the other developing areas. We are conscious of potential shortfalls in the supply of vaccines to vulnerable populations and we are hopeful the COVAX-type initiative will increase that vaccine supply. Our representatives in Geneva are working on an ongoing basis with the agencies involved and with the COVAX initiative. Similarly in respect of the Palestinian occupied territories, our representative in Ramallah is liaising with the Palestinian authority. On the Senator's central point of engagement, it is there and the Government is committed to that engagement. We are also working with our multilateral partners, such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNWRA.

A truly global response is needed. We believe COVAX is key to that response. As Dr. Mike Ryan always says, no one is safe until everybody is safe, so we will continue that engagement.