I am delighted to get this opportunity to contribute to the debate. We know there are huge opportunities in relation to the European Presidency. We know we are in a very volatile world with an awful lot of circumstances changing by the minute and hour. It is fair to say that for all of the positives of the European Union, there are failings. There has been much talk about the failures of Europe, and we can go back to the financial crash and the fact we were not necessarily shown the solidarity we should have been shown. This is accepting the improvements during Covid and the huge solidarity shown to us during the Brexit disaster, the Brexit negotiations and all that was required in that regard. We all accept there has been a huge hit to the body politic and people's trust in politics, and to people's very financial being across Europe and the western world. When Europe talks about issues of security, and I am not even getting into the arguments about rearming the EU, we all know the Irish people are absolutely committed to an independent foreign policy, non-alignment and military neutrality. That goes without saying. If we are going to talk about security, we also have to talk about the security of our people and the fact there has to be a rebuilding of trust and relationships. This is about addressing the financial crisis that people are in. I accept we have our own issues here, where health meets housing meets the cost of living and the cost of fuel. The EU can facilitate us and we can work alongside each other on delivering on the big idea of dealing with the issue of the changes we need to make on where we get our supplies of fuel and power. We keep talking about wind power but we know there are huge possibilities. We could be talking about strategic autonomy for Ireland and strategic autonomy for Europe across the board but this is where we need to go. I agree with everything that has been said as regards overseas development aid and the fact USAID has cut to bits many necessary projects. People might care from a point of view of the issues they are worried about, whether this is the impact across the world of how people are being treated, the lack of fairness and equality, even in relation to trade, and also the impact it has on immigration to this country. The Minister of State will expect that I will finish by saying that we need to see proper movement on the EU-Israel Association Agreement. We need to do work on what we can do. As difficult as it is to push the Europeans, we need to see movement. I welcome the Tánaiste's foray into the issue of Irish unity, following the route map of the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond. I also welcome what I have heard from the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan. We have to have a conversation with our European neighbours on the importance and necessity of doing our own preparations but then their facilitating us in delivering Irish unity, which could really change things positively, North and South and across Europe.

Sentiment score: 0.22