Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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101. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of the implementation of the recommendations in the March 2021 Report by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence on the Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccines to Developing Countries; the engagement he has had to date with the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment with regard to the recommendation of the easing of intellectual property rights with regard to the Covid-19 vaccines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24213/21]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence for their recent 'Report on the Distribution of Covid-19 Vaccines to Developing Countries', the recommendations of which are being considered across relevant Government Departments.

Ireland is fully engaged in efforts by the international community to ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for all. The Government quadrupled funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2020, given its role as lead UN Agency for health and co-host of the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which has the COVAX facility as a centrepiece.

The Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment leads on Intellectual Property Rights and World Trade Organisation (WTO) matters, including on the current discussion on the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. They are working with the European Commission and other EU Member States on the EU response to the calls for a TRIPS waiver. They are also giving consideration to Ireland’s potential participation in technology-pooling mechanisms such as the C-TAP initiative. My Department continues to liaise with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on this and a number of related matters, on an ongoing basis.

In the meantime, so far this year my Department has provided €5 million in Irish Aid funding to enable developing countries to access vaccines. Most of this funding is going to the COVAX facility, the global UN-led mechanism for pooling procurement and fair distribution of vaccines. In addition, my Department was able to work across Government in providing a donation of life-saving oxygen and equipment to India recently, as they deal with the surge in cases there. This is part of at least €50 million allocated by my Department to global health in 2021.