Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Ireland fully supports an effective global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the need for equitable access to vaccines and technology.

In 2020, the WHO and the Government of Costa Rica launched the COVID Technology Access Pool, (C-TAP), to encourage the voluntary sharing of COVID-19 relevant technology, intellectual property and knowhow. The European Commission has been working with EU Member States including Ireland to identify options for possible cooperation. C-TAP is relevant to multiple Government Departments, including the Departments of Enterprise, Trade & Employment; Foreign Affairs; Health; and Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation & Science.

Initiatives such as C-TAP play a role in strengthening the COVID-19 response, but other actions are also needed to address bottlenecks in vaccine delivery and distribution. To date, my Department has invested €200 million in COVID-19 response and global health, including strengthening health systems for the prevention and treatment of pre-existing conditions.

Alongside discussions around C-TAP at EU level, Ireland will continue to support the sharing of technology, such as the sharing of the IP behind the COVID Tracker App. As part of the National Open Research Forum, we have granted non-exclusive royalty-free licenses through Knowledge Transfer Ireland. In addition, through Science Foundation Ireland we align with ‘Plan S’, which requires that scientific publications that result from publicly-funded research be made openly available.

Already this year, my Department announced an additional contribution of €5 million to COVAX, bringing Ireland’s overall contribution to-date to €13.5 million, to purchase and distribute vaccines in lower income countries. The Department of Health has committed to donate up to 5 million surplus vaccines to developing countries, largely through COVAX. To date, more than 1.3 million of these doses have been delivered to countries including Nigeria, Ghana and Indonesia, with more expected. This in addition to the bilateral donation of 335,000 AstraZeneca doses to Uganda.