On Friday, Senator Alice-Mary Higgins returned to the Seanad to pass the Health Emergency legislation in response to COVID-19.
She spoke about our social fabric, intergenerational solidarity, our public health system and its frontline staff as well as the carers, cleaners, and others doing essential work - including the factory workers making lifesaving ventilators.
We will face difficult decisions in the short, medium and long term and, when we get to the other side of this difficult dark time, it won’t be business as usual.
We must emerge with a society and economy that are more sustainable and resilient to future challenges. The €750 billion which has been released by the ECB in response to coronavirus must go first to public services and it must be climate proofed.
Dear Friends,
Wishing you a happy and hopeful New Year despite the challenging circumstances. I want to welcome you to my latest newsletter. and express again my deep thanks to all who entrusted me with their votes and supported my re-election to the Seanad last year and all those who have been in touch since to share their concerns and ideas.
Independent Senator Alice-Mary Higgins has said “there is an urgent moral responsibility on the Irish Government to support a Trade and Intellectual Property Rules (TRIPS) waiver and publicly press the European Commission to vote in favour of that TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting on April 30th”.
A TRIPS waiver would allow for the sharing of the intellectual property for COVID-19 vaccines. The proposal has been supported by NGOs such as Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontieres.