Ireland to contribute €50m to global vaccine programme

Ireland is set to spend some €50m in support of global health in 2021, a figure which will see many low-income countries access the Covid-19 vaccine.

Ireland is set to spend some €50m in support of global health in 2021, a figure which will see many low-income countries access the Covid-19 vaccine.

This is according to the Department of Foreign Affairs, with its spend this year set to include funding for the the COVAX Facility, which will support 92 low and middle income countries. COVAX is one of three parts of the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which was launched last April by the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission, and France.

It aims to ensure that people in all corners of the world will get access to Covid-19 vaccines once they are available, regardless of their wealth.

“Ireland is playing its full part as a member of the global health community to establish facilities and oversight mechanisms to ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for all,” a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said, adding that Ireland had quadrupled support to WHO in 2020. 

Irish Aid - Ireland's official international development aid programme - has made an additional funds allocation to support global equitable access to vaccines, the department confirmed.

“Ireland has increased its support to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in part to assist its Covid response,” the spokesperson said.

Equitable distribution

It comes after WHO’s director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for equitable distribution of the vaccine, after it was revealed that in one low-income country just 25 people had been vaccinated. 

“The price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries,” he added.

Senator Alice-Mary Higgins Ireland’s increased financial contribution but said the country needs to show further leadership by addressing other obstacles to equitable access.

A global pandemic requires a global response, both in terms of human solidarity and because until the virus is suppressed everywhere, new strains can emerge anywhere. 

"In particular, we need to ensure that health workers in every part of the world are given urgent access to vaccination because robust public health systems are our shared international frontline,” she said.

The senator also said that distribution of vaccines could be greatly accelerated if pharmaceutical companies, many of whom have received huge public funding for research, were encouraged to share information.

“Access to vaccination is a global public good and it must not be limited by profit-seeking market dynamics,” she stated.