Alan Kelly
Question:3. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the European Council. [43548/20]
View answerWednesday, 10 March 2021
Questions (3, 4)
Mary Lou McDonald
Question:4. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the European Council meeting held on 25 and 26 February 2021. [13100/21]
View answerOral answers (11 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 and 4 together.
I have participated in several engagements with my fellow members of the European Council in recent months. We met in person in Brussels on 10 and 11 December, by video conference on 21 January and, again, on 25 and 26 February.
At the European Council meeting in December, we discussed Covid-19, in particular the authorisation and roll-out of vaccines which began across the European Union shortly after Christmas. We agreed the circumstances in which rule of law measures in the multi-annual financial framework and the Next Generation European Union recovery package can be invoked, enabling the Council and European Parliament to adopt formally the package worth €1.8 trillion which will play a vital role in supporting Europe's economic recovery.
We endorsed the binding European Union target of a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 of at least 55% compared with 1990 levels, a crucial step towards a climate-neutral European Union by 2050. We also agreed on the need for co-operation to tackle terrorism and violent extremism, both online and offline.
On international matters, we discussed Turkey's recent provocative activities in the eastern Mediterranean. It was agreed to return to this issue. We stressed the importance of a strong strategic transatlantic partnership and close co-operation on shared challenges with President Biden's Administration. The European Council President, Ursula von der Leyen, provided an update on the then negotiations with the United Kingdom which subsequently resulted in an agreement on 24 December. That agreement entered into force on a provisional basis on 1 January.
The meeting of the European Council was followed by a meeting of the Euro Summit which welcomed the agreement reached in the Eurogroup on the reform of the European Stability Mechanism.
In our meetings by video conference on 21 January, 25 February and 26 February, discussion focused on Covid-19, including the epidemiological situation across Europe, particularly the emergence of threats represented by new variants. There was agreement that vaccine production roll-out and authorisation should be accelerated where possible. It was also agreed that while travel restrictions are necessary at this time, borders should stay open to ensure the free flow of goods and services within the Single Market. We also discussed work to improve European Union co-ordination to ensure better prevention, preparedness for and response to future health emergencies.
At our meeting on 26 February, there was an exchange with NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, following which we discussed EU security and defence matters. I welcome the development of a European Union strategic compass which will identify the key challenges in the period to 2030 in terms of crisis management missions, resilience capabilities and working with partners. The aim is for this to be adopted in early 2022.
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, also briefed us on the situation in the Southern Neighbourhood region. President von der Leyen recalled the strategic importance of partnership with the region and the acute need after Covid to support its long-term socioeconomic recovery.
We are short of time but it is fair to say the European Commission has not covered itself in glory with the vaccine roll-out. I note from his earlier reply that President von der Leyen texted the Taoiseach on the new amount of vaccines coming to Ireland, which is pretty small considering the losses we have had in recent weeks and the shortfall in the vaccines that were meant to be delivered originally.
The Taoiseach did not get time to finish his reply about discussions with Pfizer and Merck. I want to clarify some points. Did we try to get the Pfizer vaccines like Denmark and Germany? Can we demonstrate how we did that? Many of us have asked this question but we have never been given full clarity.
The Commission has also put forward proposals on travel as we come out of this. Cyprus and Greece have said they will accept any visitor who is vaccinated. Where are we as regards a European Covid passport?
Will the Taoiseach explain the reason AstraZeneca supplies to Britain do not seem to be affected? Why are supples to Europe affected?
On a domestic note, the Tánaiste stated 1.6 million vaccinations would take place in June.
It seems everything is getting pushed back but now they are going happen in June. He said that in the past half hour.
As regards mandatory quarantine, I note that people can be flying in, for instance, through Schiphol to Cork. Where will people who come in from Brazil, through Schiphol, to Cork be quarantined?
Can the Taoiseach clarify whether the British Prime Minister had given him notice of his proposal to act unilaterally and outside of the remit of the joint committee in respect of the protocol? Was the Taoiseach given advance notice of that or any indication that was about to happen? If the Taoiseach was, did he share that information with members of the Cabinet?
It is imperative that we have clarity on all manner of issues but for the purposes of this discussion, on the precise actions that Government has taken in respect of sourcing a wider supply of vaccines within the European system and outside of it. The issue of the Pfizer vaccine has been raised by Deputy Kelly. I am interested to hear the Taoiseach's answer to that. More widely, in respect of other vaccines, what exactly has been done? What exactly is proposed to be done to widen and strengthen our capacities in terms of vaccine supply?
It seems the European Union has performed extremely badly in securing the supplies of vaccine that we need and the contrast with Britain is stark. I wonder the extent to which this is because the European Union is deferring to the big pharmaceutical companies that are producing the vaccine because of their desire to make money and so on. I say that because, for example, the World Health Organization is calling for support for the People's Vaccine issue, which will be voted on at the World Trade Organization where Europe is holding out against the waiving of intellectual property rights, the sharing of technology and so on that would be necessary to ramp up supplies. It seems to me that this is because they are kowtowing to the companies, which are securing to maximise profit from the production of the vaccine. Even the contrast with the United States is interesting. Joe Biden has seized the means of production. He has done a socialist thing. He seized the means of production with the Defense Production Act in order to ramp up supply but we do not seem to have the same attitude.
The Taoiseach might also comment on what efforts have been made - I asked a question but I did not really understand the answer - in engagement we have had with Russia and China over their vaccines and why we are not trying to secure supplies of those vaccines. Every day we do not have vaccine rolled out is another day of hardship and sacrifice for the people of this country.
I want to ask the Taoiseach whether Ireland, at a European Union level, is supporting the waiving of intellectual property rights for vaccines, given that it is in our interests that this is tackled at a global level. Why is Ireland ruling out sourcing additional vaccines outside the European Union framework of supply? What is the reason for that? Are all other avenues to get additional vaccines being exhausted? Why is it the case that other European Union countries have been able to get additional vaccines and Ireland has not succeeded in doing that?
The reason this has been raised so often is because of the damage that it is doing to the country. Ireland has had the longest and most severe lockdown of any country in Europe. According to Reuters a couple of weeks ago, Ireland had 163 days of workplace closures and that compared to Germany, which had 34 days of workplace closures. The reason for the length and severity of the lockdown in this country is because the Government has not got the other tools against this virus right and prime among them is the issue of the vaccine. There is a massive cost to society from this. There are 830,000 people currently on hospital waiting lists. We have heard oncologists telling us that there will be an influx of far more advanced cancers into the system because the health service is not able to deal with people who have non-Covid illnesses.
From my perspective, the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has been involved in horizon politics. Every time he sets an objective and a date, by the time we get to that date, the objective slides back into the horizon and we never get to the objective. Deputy Donnelly stated that we would have all of the nursing homes vaccinated by the end of January. They were still vaccinating nursing homes at the end of February. On 14 February, the Minister said that within three weeks, all those over the age of 85 would be vaccinated. In my county, I know of GP surgeries that do not yet have a date for their first tranche of vaccines for those over the age of 85.
Other countries have been proactive. We have seen Austria and Denmark get involved in a partnership with Israel to see can they find vaccines. We have seen other countries in the European Union seek to additionally chase down supply.
I thank the Deputy.
This is my final point. I asked Deputy Stephen Donnelly last week in a parliamentary question what actions he had taken to procure additional vaccines outside of the European supply chain. The Minister said none.
There were a broad range of questions. I would say at the outset it would be interesting if Deputy Tóibín followed up that story on Israel. How many vaccines will those countries get in the next month from Israel or the month after that or the month after that? That is the point. There will be no immediate dividend from that particular venture any time soon in terms of additional vaccines, because Israel is vaccinating its own country and will continue to do so. The reality is, as I have stated here repeatedly today, the key to this is increased production and manufacturing capacity.
We have taken on all our full offerings from the European Union in the pre-purchase agreements in respect of the companies that have so far been authorised, namely, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca has not fulfilled its contractual commitments to the European Union. It has fallen very significantly short of its contractual commitments to Europe. That has caused considerable annoyance within the European Union and resulted, as we know, in the decision by the Commission in respect of the protocol and so on, so angry was the Commission at the time at the degree to which AstraZeneca had not fulfilled its contractual obligations. The next company will be Johnson & Johnson but it has been clear that it will be April before it will be issuing supplies to the European Union, even though it will be authorised soon by the European Medicines Agency.
We have approached Pfizer. I approached Pfizer here in Ireland. I made it clear to the Pfizer corporation that Ireland would be willing to support in any way any reconfiguration of any plant in Ireland to generate additional vaccine production. Most of the pharmaceutical companies in Ireland are involved in the production of very valuable medicines, and indeed vaccines, for use elsewhere in respect of different diseases globally. We made that offer but, as I said earlier, Pfizer has come back and stated that it is concentrating on the Belgian plant. It reconfigured that Belgian plant and has increased its capacity, as well as in Marburg, Germany, in its work with BioNTech, which has also substantially increased production and supply lines and will continue to do so.
In terms of Johnson & Johnson, for example, President Biden brought Merck and J&J together. I immediately spoke with our IDA Ireland people and asked whether we could get that deal in Ireland, that is, could J&J and Merck coalesce in respect of their plants in Ireland to increase manufacturing capacity. Again, the answer was that would not be happening here because of what is going on in Carlow, for example, in the Merck plant, and the commitments the company has there and with other plants. Anything we can do to support the companies in increasing production and capacity, and utilising Irish manufacturing capacity towards that end, we will do. If that means state aid support, we are open to doing that. We have made that clear to all of the companies and will continue to do that.
We should not get into an ideological position on intellectual property and should be mindful of the questions that need to be asked as to why AstraZeneca has found a certain difficulty in fulfilling its contracts. Arrangements have been agreed and we are not deferring to big pharma or anything like that.
One of the great achievements that has been missed in all of the debate and narrative is that within ten months, because of the pre-purchase agreements and the funding upfront that enabled the development of the vaccines, we had the extraordinary situation where we actually had three vaccines authorised in ten months. This would never have happened before in the history of the development of vaccines. That is a plus. The model that was used may not meet with Deputy Boyd Barrett’s ideological approach but it actually has worked in the production and development of vaccines that have been very effective in reducing severe illness and mortality and are increasingly showing evidence of reducing infection rates.
I grant that there is an issue with the performance of AstraZeneca in respect of the UK market and the European contract. That is a fair point and the delivery to the UK market from AstraZeneca needs to be examined further as it is in sharp contrast with the fulfilment of its contract with the European Union.
After Johnson & Johnson, we are hoping that CureVac will come on stream and we have not factored that into any figures towards the end of the second quarter. That will be another important additional vaccine.
On the travel proposals, the European Commission has issued a communication on what it is calling a green pass. We are not yet at that stage because public health is cautious regarding the longer term efficacy and utilisation of the passports. There are also civil liberties issues related to the rights of citizens, for example, in making it imperative to have a passport to do various things in society and to travel.
Could we get a brief answer on the Chinese and Russian vaccines?
On Russia, the Sputnik vaccine producer has been invited for a long time now to apply for European Medicines Agency, EMA, authorisation. My understanding now is that it is doing so. Incidentally, Russia is a long way from vaccinating its own population. It will have huge challenges in that regard. If the Sputnik vaccine is approved by the EMA, we will have no difficulty in using it and, likewise, the vaccine from China if it is approved by the EMA. We must have some authorisation mechanism for vaccines and I hope most people will accept that.
The vaccines were approved late in December and the bulk of our restrictions were imposed prior to the vaccines arriving on the scene. I ask Deputy Tóibín to compare average mortality and incidence rates in Europe or the UK with those in Ireland. There was also a dividend from the restrictions we put in place. They have been very difficult for people but we would all agree that we have to put public health and the health service first in ensuring the latter is not overwhelmed as happened last January and February when numbers were too high.