I wish to put on the record that I am generally supportive of and in agreement with the Government's decision to increase the Covid-19 restrictions to level 5 nationwide, as of midnight tonight. It is a prudent and sensible thing to do under the circumstances. As an individual who comes from a constituency that covers the Laois, Offaly and Kildare region, I am familiar with the additional burden that lockdown will put on the local population. However, I also recognise that it is a viable strategy as a last resort to keep a lid on this virus and prevent it from gaining a foothold in our vulnerable populations, although I appreciate that this is not a universally held view. Even members of the medical profession differ in their opinions on this, however that is not unusual. We are dealing with something that is at the very frontiers of knowledge, and we are learning more about it every single day.

However, I wish to focus on something which is more hopeful. It concerns the potential discovery of a vaccine. The discovery of a vaccine is not going to fit into a very rigid political timescale, but it is something on which we should definitely focus. While we cannot influence the process directly, we could be looking at improving the environment or conditions to expedite that process.

I have three questions for the Taoiseach. First, where are we from a vaccination perspective? Most Members in the Chamber recognise that a vaccine would be a game changer. We are familiar with what is available from an open source perspective, but is there any information at a national level or European level to which the Taoiseach might be privy, that he can share with the House? Where are we from a vaccination discovery perspective?

Second, we have an extensive pharmaceutical industry in this country. Is it playing its part in this global effort? Are we leveraging the expertise we have in Cork or in Newbridge where the Pfizer plant is located?

Third, is there anything else we can do from a State or governmental perspective? Are we leveraging organisations such as Enterprise Ireland and the new Department with responsibility for further and higher education, research, innovation and science? Are our public universities involved with commercial industry, taking a collaborative approach, so that we can expedite this process from a vaccination perspective? Those are my three questions and if the Taoiseach could shed some light on them, I would very much appreciate it.

I thank the Deputy for his comments. I recall that in the summer when we introduced restrictions that were equivalent to level 3 in counties Laois, Offaly and Kildare, which people may forget as things are moving so quickly, there was anger at the time, and understandably so. Those level 3 restrictions had an impact on that occasion, in terms of reducing the spread of the virus in those locations. Interestingly, I just saw comments from the chief medical officer in Northern Ireland that the measures taken in the Derry and Strabane areas, which were equivalent to level 3, appear to have had an impact in terms of reducing the number of cases, although it is early days. That is something that we need to follow in terms of how it might inform us.

On the vaccine question, the Government is part of an EU advanced purchase procurement agreement so we are part of an EU approach. Under that, the EU has already entered into agreements with Oxford University and AstraZeneca, for example. We are part of that and we make a financial contribution, having signed off on it. Yesterday the Cabinet took decisions to participate in agreements with Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals and Janssen.

The EU is currently exploring other options with additional vaccine manufacturers, including with CureVac for the initial purchase of 225 million doses on behalf of all the EU member states. Exploratory talks between Moderna and the European Commission are under way for the purchase of 800 million doses on behalf of all EU member states as are talks with BioNTech-Pfizer for the initial purchase of 200 million doses on behalf of all EU member states. Three are more or less signed off on and there are three more on which talks are currently under way between the European Union and the pharmaceutical companies.

As part of the European Union's vaccination strategy, it is helping countries to prepare their vaccination campaigns so we asked at the European Council meeting two weeks ago to co-ordinate priority distribution of the vaccine. When one vaccinates, who does one vaccinate first? Will it be similar to the flu vaccination programme where it is the elderly and those who are compromised who need it initially? That is ongoing. In other words, it is about a fair distribution and that the most vulnerable get priority. It is about safe, affordable and effective vaccines. A vaccine on its own is not a panacea. There will be challenges when it arrives. The effectiveness of the vaccine is important.

In terms of our situation domestically, early in September I visited APC. All these companies, including Pfizer, have locations in Ireland but the manufacturing is not occurring here. I met with Pfizer recently in Cork, more generally about its operations in Ireland. Pfizer was reasonably confident about the prospect of it having a vaccine by the end of the year. That has been widely reported, so that is not news.

APC is an award-winning Irish pharmaceutical research and development company supported by Enterprise Ireland. I met with it in early September. It has developed the manufacturing technology. It is working with an Australian biotechnology firm, Vaxine Pty, which is working on a vaccine as well. That is interesting and I take the Deputy's point in this regard. Enterprise Ireland is supporting that company with a view that it can increase its capacity so that should a vaccine or vaccines arrive, it would be able to assist the global manufacturing effort because it will take an enormous manufacturing effort globally to get enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone in the world. That is an interesting company with an interesting technology that could be of great value to these companies which are currently researching and producing vaccines because it could add manufacturing capacity to them.

That is great. I thank the Taoiseach for that very useful information of which I was not aware. We are all conscious of cost in this Chamber. We are all familiar with the past history of pharmaceutical companies which may profiteer on pandemics like this one. In light of the global emergency crisis at the moment, has there been any discussion on perhaps the waiving of patents by pharmaceutical companies? Does the Taoiseach have any idea of what the unit cost of a single vaccine dose will be? He may not have that information to hand so maybe he could follow up with a written reply.

I do not have the specific unit cost of each of the deals. It is not as high as one might have thought or as might conventionally be the case. One has to be cúramach about what one says publicly about it, but there is a genuine effort being made here. That said, the difference here has been the advanced purchase process. In the US, the government there has been doing it. There has been a big debate there in the context of the presidential election etc. and that is why the companies came out strongly and said they will not have a vaccine before the election. They wanted to separate themselves out from any potential perception of politics playing a role in it. The advance purchase enabled it to go for it.

These processes in terms of the research, development and production of a vaccine are, in historical context, taking place at breakneck speed. They are really moving at pace. The US has the FDA approval and authorisation process and in the EU it will be the EVI process.

I can get a breakdown for the Deputy in terms of the contribution we are making. I want to be specific for the record. We are reasonably satisfied in terms of the contribution and the potential output in terms of the supply of a vaccine. It is hopefully an area where Europe can leave its mark in terms of co-ordination across member states and that it is not every member state for itself when the rush comes if and when a vaccine is produced. I have asked that considerable work continues on this so that when vaccines arrive we are in a position to distribute to the most needy and most vulnerable first and to those who will benefit best from an effective and safe vaccine. That will involve an entirely different debate here in terms of public reaction and perspectives.