The Presidency offers three key opportunities and three key priorities for me. I also acknowledge the role Garret FitzGerald played not only in this country, but also when it comes to our position and the benefits that we have seen from the European Union over many years. This Presidency offers an opportunity to restate that. I grew up in a time where I have only known the European Union with the ability to live, to work, to study and to travel across the EU. We sometimes take that for granted. We have an opportunity to engage with students in our schools and universities to highlight the benefits we have seen from the European Union, including everything from the significant investment in our infrastructure to CAP funding to the fact that we now have plugs that everybody can use in the same way in all countries. All of this matters for people. This is also about showing that we can share and steer the really big matters that Europe is facing and the opportunities that come with. We set out three priority areas that we want to focus on: competitiveness, security and values. The Deputy homed in on many of the areas under competitiveness. We want to make sure that not just Ireland but Europe as a whole remains competitive because it is good for business, good for consumers and good for the economy. It means we can reinvest in our society in all the areas we want to invest in. The Deputy mentioned various different measures and it is really important to make it relevant to people. What are we talking about when we say competitiveness? We are introducing measures that will quite literally make it easier for businesses to set up in Ireland, which can then set up in France and do the same kind of business there without having to jump through hoops. We want to make it easier for more finance to be available to business and industry. We want to make sure that we have a strategic plan for the really important sectors, such as pharma, medical devices and life sciences in particular, which is crucial to our economy. We are looking to see how we can have a more strategic plan for the sector in the time ahead where we remove what is sometimes arduous regulation without reducing our standards. We need to make sure that innovation is not stifled and that we allow it to grow. Importantly we will be negotiating the overall figure for the next budget. A key priority for us is to ensure our farmers and those in our agriculture community get a strong CAP budget and that we have money for many other areas as well, including Northern Ireland and the peace process. We will also be focused on ways in which we can support young people through Horizon funding and the Erasmus programme. The Minister, Deputy Patrick O’Donovan, is bringing forward ideas on how we can provide a safer space online for young people. At the beginning of our Presidency, Commissioner Von der Leyen will set out a number of options that Europe will move on to try to make the online space safer for young people. These are some of the practical things we will be doing during the Presidency and much more. Beyond that, as the Deputy said, thousands of people will come to Ireland. We will have 22 informal ministerial meetings and about 370 associated and official events that are linked to that. All of this means people coming to Dublin and rest of Ireland, investing in our cities and seeing what we have to offer. Through these meetings there is a chance to show them culturally who we are and what we stand for. The engagement the Deputy mentioned is happening with Dublin City Council and with businesses around the city. I appreciate we need to do more in that regard.

Sentiment score: 0.37

The Deputy is right that it is about trying to get that balance. In every decision we take we have to think of our core European values, our fundamental principles and why we do what we do. It is to make life better for all of the people that we represent, our citizens in Ireland and across the EU. We have seen a lot of backsliding in certain countries. Elections are taking place at the moment and I am concerned about some of the outcomes of the elections where we have heard very clear not just rhetoric but pronouncements from potential incoming governments, as happened previously in Hungary over the years. We are lucky that in Ireland the overall support for the EU has remained strong but there are many reasons not to be complacent. We just talked about what is happening in Gaza and the Middle East and the fact that Europe needs to do more and be stronger. We need to make sure that those types of decisions and that type of focus remain on the agenda during our Presidency. I can assure the Deputy of that. Coming to the final priority area of security, we also need to make sure that we are working together to respond to what are new and emerging challenges we have not seen in the many decades of our membership of the European Union. It is about our physical security and protecting citizens but also our economic security, which is essential if we want to do all the other things I have outlined.

Sentiment score: 0.39