TRIPS waiver protest
Deputy Pringle cites a protest outside Leinster House supporting the TRIPS waiver and says public money helped fund vaccine development. The Taoiseach says he is open to discussion but remains unconvinced the waiver would produce more vaccines, stressing future innovation and the complexity of global supply.
Today, outside the gates of Leinster House, the People's Vaccine Alliance Ireland held a protest calling on the Government to support the TRIPS waiver - to be helpful, I will give him a chance to answer the question again - and get Europe to actually do something to help end the global vaccine inequity that is hampering our fight against Covid-19. Over 100 nations support this position, yet it has effectively been blocked by the US and the EU. We know that it has been public money that developed these vaccines. For example, less than 2% of the identified funding for the AstraZeneca vaccine came from private industry. These are our vaccines. As Mike Ryan has said, we have been brought to our knees by a virus not because the virus is smart but because we are stupid. We have not been able to use groundbreaking tools in the smartest way we could have. The issue is to be discussed at the World Trade Organization TRIPS council this week. As a nation we have an opportunity to be on the right side of history on this. I ask the Taoiseach to go to that council and support us and support the TRIPS waiver being given to the rest of the world, as it has been asked for by the South African Government.
Comment on this
I have no issue with discussing this in considerable detail. I do object to the sloganisation and the ideology around it because I am not convinced at all that it produces one extra vaccine. In the case of BioNTech or any other company that has produced vaccines in record time, if you waive the intellectual property, who will do the next vaccine in six months' time for the next variant?
Comment on this
Ninety-eight per cent of the funding for the AstraZeneca vaccine was public funding.
Comment on this
The point is that what has happened in the world did not happen the last time we had close to a pandemic with SARS. They were all over the place at European level and globally in terms of production of vaccines.
I accept that we need to get vaccines to less developed countries. There are many issues involved. Some of those countries refused the Pfizer and other mRNA vaccines initially because they thought AstraZeneca was going to be the vaccine at the time. The Deputy will recall all the issues with the manufacture and supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine. There is a whole range of issues. I would argue that Europe has been the most progressive contributor on policy and the mechanics of getting this done.