Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 December 2022
155. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health the engagement he has had with the European Union and the World Health Organization with regard to an international pandemic treaty; the role Ireland will play in the negotiations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61262/22]
View answerIreland strongly supports a multilateral approach to global health issues with the WHO in a central leadership role. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that the global status quo in terms of pandemic preparedness and response is not acceptable.
On 1 December 2021, the members of the World Health Organisation reached consensus to begin the process to negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Ireland supports the WHO-led process to negotiate a binding legal instrument on pandemic preparedness and response. The aim of such a Pandemic Agreement is to protect public health and to help save lives in the event of future pandemics.
An Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) was established by WHO and has met three times in 2022. The third INB meeting, which is currently being held, is discussing a conceptual zero draft of the Pandemic Agreement. Ireland has been participating in the INB process along with EU partners and is also, along with a majority of EU Member States, part of the Group of Friends of the Treaty. It should be noted that while certain health matters are within the competency of EU Member States, other health matters are within the competency of the EU itself. The Group of Friends of the Treaty strongly supports an agreement that would foster an all-of-government and all-of-society approach, strengthening national, regional and global capacities and resilience to future pandemics.
Ireland will be advocating for an ambitious, fair and implementable agreement to protect public health through better pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Officials in my Department, working with Ireland's Permanent Representation to the UN in Geneva, are engaging, and will continue to engage, with the Group of Friends, other Government Departments, the EU negotiator, other EU Member States, and the INB bureau in this process.
