I want to ask about vaccines and I preface my comments by saying I am very much pro-EU. I am a former MEP and I know that Ireland is part of the EU bloc. It was very important for us in regard to purchasing power for vaccines. However, yesterday I appeared on RTÉ's "Drivetime" programme with Cormac Ó hEadhra, along with the EU health spokesperson, Stefan De Keersmaecker. To say Mr. De Keersmaecker's commentary and answers to questions was underwhelming would be an understatement. I asked the following fairly direct question, which was relayed to him. How could AstraZeneca continue to honour its contractual obligations to the UK but let down the EU? The Tánaiste has asked this himself. How is this allowed to happen? The response from Mr. De Keersmaecker was that the European Commission was "talking very seriously" to AstraZeneca.

I am sorry, but if talking very seriously to the company is the extent of what the EU is prepared to do, our colleagues in the European Commission need a different dose. They need a dose of reality because that is not good enough. They obviously do not know the level of frustration in this country, and indeed in other countries, and obviously feel this approach will get us there. It will not, however. The President of the European Commission texting the Taoiseach yesterday with good news of 46,500 new vaccines does not cut it because the text back to her should have asked what about the 653,500 vaccines, net, that we are still down. On top of this, we know that the EU has exported 34 million doses of vaccine to other countries, including 9 million to the UK, for instance. The UK and the US, in essence, are not allowing any exports, yet the EU is allowing exports to those countries.

I am asking the Tánaiste to say, on behalf of our country, that the way in which the EU is dealing with vaccines needs to be recalibrated, more ambitious and certainly more clinical. We need a summit on vaccines. The Government should demand it. I would not mind if part of that was face to face to get into the detail of this because we need to do three things as a result of this. We need to ensure we protect current supply in the EU as much as possible, and I am not into vaccine nationalism. We need to make sure, most importantly, that the contracts are honoured. Finally, we need to put together plans to increase manufacturing throughout the EU for our citizens.

I am pro-European too and a big supporter of the European project and European integration, but like the Deputy I do not believe that necessarily means one cannot criticise the European Commission on occasion, and perhaps this is one of those occasions. I very much support the fact that we took the decision to adopt a common European approach. I was Taoiseach during the first wave of this pandemic and I remember what it was like when every individual country was competing with one another and struggling to get personal protective equipment, PPE, to protect staff and to get reagents, ventilators, swabbing kits and testing kits. I know that in that scenario, it is more likely that the big countries with the big buying power will do better. Had Ireland gone on its own on this occasion, we may have found ourselves at the back of the queue. I think we were right, therefore, to be part of a European approach. That does not mean we have not all along been exploring other avenues. We have been, and the Taoiseach has gone into some detail on that.

It is evident that we have a problem here. While Pfizer and Moderna are honouring their contractual commitments with the European Union, give or take a day or two or a few glitches, AstraZeneca has not and that is an enormous problem we are now facing. I am seeking explanations too because I can understand how AstraZeneca might run into problems with supply, manufacturing or quality control, but I do not understand how this big successful company can honour its contracts with the United States and the United Kingdom but for some reason not honour its contractual commitments to the European Union. Thus far, the answers it has given are not satisfactory. The Government does not find them satisfactory and the European Union does not find them satisfactory either.

In terms of action that can be taken, there is provision for export bans. That is a European law and as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I have signed it into law in Ireland, although it does not arise here as no vaccines are being made in Ireland at the moment. The European Union and member states have the power to ban the export of AstraZeneca vaccines and Italy has been the first to do exactly that. We are, of course, ramping up manufacturing supply to the extent that we can, but bear in mind there is not a huge amount of spare manufacturing capacity in Europe. Plants that manufacture medicines and vaccines are already manufacturing medicines and vaccines, and we cannot stop manufacturing life-saving medicines that we need now. That needs to continue, but all those things are being explored. Even from my Department, €100 million is available in state aid for companies that want to scale up and manufacture Covid-related products, whether PPE, testing kits or vaccines, as the case may be.

I thank the Tánaiste for his frankness but I want to know what we are going to do here. Everyone knows that AstraZeneca is letting down the EU. I was shocked by the response I got yesterday. It is simply not good enough. What are we going to do? We are a small country but we have a big capacity. This needs to be dealt with at a European level. It cannot be a situation where this company is honouring its contracts to Britain and the US, with exports going from Europe to Britain and the US, and our contracts are being failed. It is simply unacceptable. There needs to be a European action plan for this immediately. Will the Government look for this to happen? Will it look for an EU summit on this to happen immediately? If we do not act and protect our citizens, we are failing them. The EU, at the moment, by allowing the company to behave like this, is failing its citizens while allowing exports to countries outside the EU.

The provision for export bans exists and Italy has started down that road. I understand there is going to be a meeting of Heads of State and Government to discuss vaccines quite soon but I do not know the date for that.

Tá an clár vacsaíne faoi lánseol. Tá an chéad dáileog faighte anois ag formhór an lucht cónaithe in ionaid chúraim fadtéarmacha, oibrithe cúraim shláinte agus daoine atá 85 bliain d’aois nó níos sine. Is léir go raibh frustrachas faoi leith ann nuair a d’athraigh comhlachtaí an sceideal seachadta. In ainneoin seo, dáiltear 95% de na vacsaíní a thagann chuig an tír ar dhaoine laistigh de sheacht lá. Fógraíodh dea-scéal inné go mbeidh 46,500 dáileog bhreise den vacsaín Pfizer le fáil ag Éirinn roimh dheireadh na míosa. Ina theannta sin, táimid ag súil le cinneadh ón EMA faoin vacsaín Johnson & Johnson. Má mholtar an vacsaín sin tiocfaidh dáileoga go hÉirinn i lár mhí Aibreáin.