Gript –
According to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, Ireland will be signing up to the WHO’s proposed global Pandemic Treaty.
The revelation was made following a question by Independent TD Carol Nolan, who said she had received “a significant number of emails” regarding the matter from constituents.
Nolan asked Donnelly if he was aware that the World Health Assembly, on December 1st 2021, adopted a decision entitled:
According to the EU, the proposed “Pandemic Treaty” is a “legally-binding framework, aiming to ensure that the world can better respond to global health threats in the future.”
Ambassador Lotte Knudsen, EU ambassador to the UN, said such a Treaty would allow countries to respond “collectively, effectively and immediately” to future pandemics.
Nolan asked if Ireland was planned to sign up to such an agreement.
Donnelly replied that “Ireland strongly supports a multilateral approach to global health issues with the WHO in a central leadership role.”
He went on, saying that Covid-19 shows that the “global status quo” regarding pandemic preparedness “is not acceptable.”
“Therefore,” he said, “Ireland supports the WHO led process to negotiate a binding legal instrument on pandemic preparedness and response.”
Donnelly continued: “The EU is a leading proponent of this process and Ireland, along with a majority of EU Member States, is part of the Group of Friends of the Treaty. Officials in my Department, working with Ireland’s Permanent Representation to the UN in Geneva, are engaging with the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body.”
The treaty has been received critically by many, including GB News panellist Adam Brooks.
“So, not only do we have politicians that don’t understand our everyday lives and businesses,” said Brooks.
“We could soon have a WHO Treaty, that our same politicians sign up to in the event of further Covid variants or another pandemic. I didn’t vote for that and WHO don’t determine my life.”
Additionally, Canadian Conservative Party MP, Dr. Leslyn Lewis, claimed that the proposed treaty was a “global encroachment on our sovereignty” and would threaten “the independence of our healthcare systems.”
Others still raised the point that, considering the WHO is an unelected body, there was the potential for such a treaty to infringe upon democracy.
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