Europe Day is an important day for us to reflect on what Europe means to us and what we mean to Europe. It also allows us to apply a lens to the current issues of the day. I will speak to that first. Ultimately, at its heart, Europe is a peace process. For many hundreds of years, a kind of toxic nationalism existed in Europe. While that toxic nationalism is certainly been diluted as a result of the European Union project, we should never take it for granted. In some ways, we took the peace of the Good Friday Agreement for granted prior to the Brexit referendum. We saw how quickly some of those tensions could arise again. The idea that peace and mutual co-operation in Europe is a given is something we should be fearful of. We have to be careful of any one country asserting its nationalism above others. The European Union gives us the structure to do that. At its very heart, the European Union is a model to perpetuate peace. It is also a model of ensuring that national governments step up to the plate when there is a common European norm. With issues such as gender rights and climate policy, we have seen how Europe has challenged Ireland over many years to go further than perhaps national governments would have. The third leg of that stool is economic prosperity. At different times over our history with Europe, Europe has contributed to our economic prosperity and growth. It has challenged us at times as well. The post-crash period was incredibly challenging for many European Union countries. We cannot forget that this is about those three stools - peace, the idea of stretching beyond national horizons to adopt a pan-European policy on big issues like climate and economic growth. With any peace process, there must be parity of esteem. We have to recognise that there are other European Union countries with different views. There are democracies in each European member state. One of the great tragedies for me is that while we have been able to respond almost with unanimity on the issue of Ukraine, we have not been able to do so on the issue of Palestine. I have to accept that, in a democracy, people will come to the table with different views. While I fundamentally disagree with the approach of many of the European Union governments on the issue of Palestine, our interaction with Israel and so on, I have to accept that there is that difference within a union. Sometimes, people in this House speak about the European Union as if what happens here in Dublin happens everywhere in the European Union or that the views expressed here in Dublin are expressed everywhere in the European Union. We have to accept that, in a partnership, other people may have different views and priorities. We must work within that framework. There is no doubt that the current crisis with regard to the cost of oil and petrol is having a real impact on people’s lives. We need to have an approach similar to the way the European Union excelled in the delivery and procurement of the Covid vaccine. The AccelerateEU programme will be at the centre of the EU Presidency for Ireland. We need to ensure that the changes we make will have a practical impact on people’s lives. We have talked about solar. The big difficulty with the transition from, let us say, gas heating in a home to something like a heat pump is that people are relying on the expense of electricity. There is no easy technology transfer from a traditional gas boiler over to a full retrofit installation with a heat pump. We need to find new technologies to do that. That is an area where the European Union could lead the way. We can do more in the area of solar energy as well. It can help subsidise those electricity-consuming heating systems in homes. There is a lot of talk in this House about plug-in solar but we have to ensure that we get the safety, electricity and regulation right. We can do more in this regard. With the better energy warmer homes scheme for those on fuel supplement, we can do far more in terms of solar nationally. All that can be done better by working together in Europe.

Sentiment score: 0.21