What Ciarán spoke about.

Madam President, High Representative Borrell, a genocide is unfolding in Gaza and EU hypocrisy is on full display. We’re increasing sanctions against Iran for its attack on Israel, but when will Israel be sanctioned? Bombing civilians, killing journalists and aid workers, using starvation as a weapon – these are war crimes! Illegal and expanding settlements. A policy of apartheid. Enough is enough

Mr President, I would like to thank Commissioner Simson for her words. But I also want to thank my co-negotiators in the European Council and the European Commission, as well as the Parliament negotiating team, and in particular thanks to Thomas Baynes and Kelly McGlynn from my team and Heike Leberle from the Greens. Commissioner, you said this is a critical part of our joint efforts to combat cli

Mr President, Commissioner Simson, colleagues, tomorrow you will have the opportunity to support lower energy bills, tackling energy poverty and creating thousands of high-quality local jobs across Europe by voting for the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. This law sets a fair and ambitious pathway to a climate-neutral building stock by guaranteeing priority funding for renovations for th

Mr President, if our cables go down, our economy goes down. Undersea cables between Ireland and Europe are increasingly important for our economies and our communications and our energy supplies. Some 90% of Ireland’s territory is underwater. Pipelines, electricity and data cables traverse this space, and offshore wind installations are increasing. We must ensure that all of this critical infrastr

Madam President, Commissioner, Europe has a housing problem. We have under-occupation in some areas; we have overcrowding in others. We need to take action. There are 18 000 entire houses to rent on Airbnb in my country; thousands on another site. But there’s also 13 000 people living in hotel bedrooms who would love to have more permanent occupation. Without regulation, these platforms are a mons

Madam President, Commissioner McGuinness. Ireland and Europe are in the middle of a solar revolution. In our own country, tens of thousands of homes had solar panels installed last year. In total, we’re going to get a gigawatt of new solar this year. Commissioner McGuinness, you and I studied the Ardnacrusha scheme back in school. We’re installing three times the power of that hydropower station e

Madam President, Commissioner Schmit, in Dublin and across Europe women are struggling to keep themselves and their families warm. Nearly 30% of the households in Ireland are living in energy poverty. Calls for help to the charity Saint Vincent de Paul have soared since the crisis began. Two thirds of those seeking help in Dublin are female. The faces of this crisis are women – saving to put money

A Uachtaráin, ‘We did what we could. Remember us.’ Those words of the late Doctor Mahmoud Abu Nugaila were repeated by Irish lawyer, Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, before the International Court of Justice last week. In Northern Ireland, 3 500 people died over the 30 years of our conflict. In Gaza, that number have died in a little over the last two weeks. So many innocent civilians; most are women and chil

Mr President, Commissioner Schmit, thank you. There is a locked-out generation in Europe. Young people in Dublin and all around the EU have been at the sharp end of the housing and cost of living crises. They’re struggling with rising rents and lack of rental accommodation. Many are forced to live with their parents, delaying their independent adult life and affecting mental health and wellbeing.

Mr President, High Representative Borrell, Netanyahu’s army is bombing civilians with impunity. Meanwhile, President von der Leyen is silent. Europe has failed to show leadership. However, it’s not too late. The EU must take action to ensure a lasting ceasefire now. The EU-Israel trade agreement must be suspended. Violent West Bank settlers should be sanctioned. Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza un

Mr President, dear Commissioner, the future for trucks and buses is electric, for better air quality in our towns and cities, and lower emissions. Higher CO₂ reduction targets will begin phasing out combustion engines in the market. Every year 70 000 Europeans die prematurely due to pollution from road transport. We cannot delay action any longer. So, electrification must be the priority for truck

Madam President, you know, we know, we’re not on track. We will miss 85% of our sustainable development targets by 2030. So we need a rescue plan for people and the planet. We must speed up our plans for a fairer, greener world. And the United Nations is calling for targeted action in three areas: ending poverty, reducing inequality and stopping the war on nature. These problems are most keenly fe

Mr President, Commissioner Hahn, Vice-President Zīle, regarding the 2024 budget, the decisions we make are crucial ones. Our annual budget of almost EUR 200 billion shapes the lives of almost half a billion citizens, and as lead negotiator for the Transport Committee, I am glad that we will invest in transport solutions that work for all. We are increasing the budget for transport projects by EUR 

Madam President, Dublin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe. But also in Amsterdam, in Paris, in Prague, we’re hearing similar stories of housing-price affordability, with rents skyrocketing. Europe has a housing problem, a problem of affordability, supply and quality. Yet Europe can help. We have proposed a solution to tackling the huge amount of energy that has been wasted by Europe’s

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I will speak in French. This report on the mechanism to remove obstacles in a cross-border context is an important opportunity. Cross-border projects and initiatives in the European Union are currently hampered by numerous legal and administrative obstacles. If we tackle these barriers, we can improve the lives of people living in border regions. W

Madam President, Commissioner Vălean, for decades the aviation industry has quashed any measures that challenge their polluting business model. As a result, airlines have been polluting for free, with no incentives to decarbonise. Emissions will continue growing for years to come. And the challenge of decarbonising and greening aviation is so much harder now. However, we are beginning to introduce

Mr President, we don’t expect people to drink dirty brown water. So why do we expect them to breathe dirty air? We have to really seriously rethink our attitude towards air pollution and take responsibility for the power that we have to provide clean air. Air pollution is a major cause of premature death and disease in Europe. Over 300 000 premature deaths every year, yet we are so far failing to

Madam President, Commissioner, the transport proposals you have released today are very welcome. We need more transparency on emissions so that people and business can make sustainable transport choices. We need to improve our rail services and we need to prepare heavy-duty vehicles for the green transition. However, I am concerned about your final proposal on the weights and dimensions of vehicle

Madam President, Executive Vice President Vestager, thank you. ‘Too big to fail’, is often the message on large transport projects. However, cost overruns, delays, poor coordination, environmental costs and, at times, corruption bedevil these the implementation of these projects. If we think of a large transport infrastructure project will almost certainly encounter some or all of these problems.

Madam President, Commissioner, if you’re drunk and you vomit in a taxi in my home city of Dublin, you pay the price: €160 to the driver as compensation for the damage that you have caused. That is fair and right. However, nitrogen dioxide emissions, largely produced by diesel vehicles, kill 64 000 people every year. So I ask when will car manufacturers pay for the damage of the Dieselgate scandal?

Madam President, Commissioner McGuinness, I think the question is quid custodiet custodes: who guards the guards? And that’s why we need an ethics body. Since Qatargate broke, we’ve seen the consequences of lax transparency and integrity rules, waste of public money, loss of trust in the institutions and undue influence. Recently, we learned from the Qatari Government that they paid for a DG MOVE

Madam President, a compelling case for the renovation of buildings. But on the substantial issue, I would like to refer the file back to committee for interinstitutional negotiations.

Madam President, Commissioner Simson, ‘We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.’ Those were the words of Winston Churchill talking about the bicameral political system in the UK. But actually, those words resonate with the directive that’s in front of us this evening. Yes, it is about shaping buildings, but it is also about shaping the future of our planet and leaving it in a fit and heal

Madam President, Commissioner Simson, colleagues, tomorrow this Parliament faces a rare opportunity to make a visible impact in the lives of every person in Europe. This winter, millions of people were trapped in cold, draughty homes. Households and businesses are struggling to pay sky-high energy bills. Property owners are unable to renovate their homes and cannot afford to do so. Renters are stu

Madam President, Executive Vice-President Timmermans, I think it was the German playwright Schiller who said that the future comes slowly, the present flies and the past stands still forever. It seems, in this chamber, the past continues to stand still. But this week we vote on an historic deal that will make the EU the first regional bloc to ban by 2035 the production of the internal combustion e