What Clare spoke about.

Mr President, I think there is an irony that we are discussing the future of a social Europe at the very same time that the EU has tightened the reins of budgetary surveillance and fiscal restraint. That won’t be lost on people, because you can make all the declarations you like, but when everybody knows that the deal has been done and that we’re in for another round of savage austerity for Europe

Dear President, this week, German police halted a solidarity event for Palestine at the Reichstag in Berlin. The activists were told that it is illegal to speak languages other than German and English at protests. The police ordered the removal of Irish flags and Irish posters. This is a disgraceful threat to the right of assembly in Germany. This is not right at all. Madam President, all EU langu

Mr President, I have to say, of all of the insane discussions that we’ve had in here, this one absolutely has to take the biscuit. Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel, as if Iran woke up one day and decided to strike Israel out of the blue, as if Israel’s targeted attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria, which killed 16 people, a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention, had never happened. Ev

Madam President, so here we go again, giving out about foreign interference in Georgia while brazenly interfering ourselves. We never talk about the reality of life in a country where almost a quarter of the population lives abroad, driven out by abject poverty and non-existent labour rights. The median wage in Georgia is about EUR 360 a month. Emigration is the main thing Georgians expect from EU

Madam President, so now we’ve had people in here demanding the unilateral seizure of Russian state assets to give to Ukraine when every single piece of legal advice, internal and external, has said, don’t go there. It’s state piracy. It’s against international law. It will only invite retaliation. It’s against the rule of law that ye constantly say ye standby. But like everything else, the US, fre

Madam President, what has been seen cannot be unseen. And the world can now see exactly what European values really are: 200 days of Israel systematically wiping Gaza from the earth; 505 bombs a day; 21 an hour; doctors executed; mass graves in hospitals; journalists murdered. And all the while with not just the silence, but the active complicity, of the European Union. The European Union who flew

Mr President, as the present mandate draws to an end, we leave this continent poorer than it was five years ago, with record inequality, a worsening housing and cost-of-living crisis. A Europe taking a sledgehammer to solemn and necessary climate promises. A Europe which has lost the ear of a changing world. A Europe stealing from every single pocket to barrel down the road of ever-increasing war

Madam President, I think that human trafficking is, of course, a grotesque crime, and I think we all share a commitment to fighting it. But like everything else though, that apparent commitment can be abused. And we have seen that in prosecutions of migrants and NGOs for human trafficking, when actually what they’ve been doing is saving lives. And we have seen it time and again being used to browb

Madam President, today, it’s estimated that at least 27 million people worldwide are captured in the horror of forced labour. Of course, the regulation before us aims to prevent the sale or export of products using forced labour within the EU market, which is obviously very good. Unlike the Due Diligence Directive, for example, this regulation is supposed to deal with all products and all companie

Madam President, I too, of course, am a firm believer in the repair economy, and of course, in that sense support the legislation, which will give people more consumer rights and will assist in preventing the needless disposal of products that are repairable. But at the same time, we have to recognise that our current consumption model is a huge part of the problem. With planned obsolescence and c

Madam President, there’s no doubt about it: plastic pollution is a total scourge, and this legislation does certainly go in the right direction regarding tackling it. We’re only really beginning to learn about the toxic impacts of microplastics on the environment and, critically, on human health. But I think there’s a slight irony that we’re discussing it at the moment, on the eve of the elections

Mr President, I voted for the discharge for the European Labour Authority because I really think that workers’ rights need to be defended across the Union. We’ve had the EU directive on adequate minimum wages, it’s not perfect, but it did provide us with an opportunity to look at some of the issues around the growing inequality and attacks on workers’ rights. It aims to increase trade union repres

Mr President, I too voted against the discharge for the European Commission on roughly the same grounds. This is the European Commission whose President spent EUR 28 000 draping the Israeli flag over the Berlaymont Building in Brussels, the Commission President who told Israel that ‘Europe stands with you now and in the days to come’ as the Israeli Defence Forces began its genocidal campaign in Ga

Mr President, I voted against the pact because it’s a bonanza for the defence and arms industry, which profits so handsomely from the wars and instability that make people refugees and migrants in the first place. It’s a scam: a massive transfer of public money straight into the pockets of the security industries. It’s billions being spent on walls and drones and spy tech, on contractors and consu

Mr President, the rules-based order is in roaring form. Two weeks ago, Israel bombs Iran’s embassy in Syria – an act of aggression against two states, the UN Charter and the Vienna Convention. Rules? Not only no condemnation, but defence of Israel against retaliation. So last week Ecuador follows suit, sends armed heavies into Mexico’s embassy, snatching an asylum claimant – an assault on refugee

Madam President, on behalf of The Left Group, we can reluctantly agree to a debate in the April II part-session rather than now, but only on the basis that it’s accompanied by a resolution. We believe we need an urgent debate on Gaza. We should be having it today. It is an obscenity, frankly, that there hasn’t been a single debate since the landmark ICJ ruling in this Chamber at all. We need a deb

Madam President, I was really glad to see this motion tabled, and I voted for it. It is past time for this Parliament to get serious about clipping the Commission’s wings, because the Commission, and particularly its President, are out of control. And if you care about the rule of law, that should really bother you. It’s not just that the Commission is going on mandate-free solo runs in relation t

Madam President, I voted for this policy because I believe that the neglect of rural communities really is immense. It’s partly reflected in the economic issues which are behind the protest movement being led currently by our farmers. But it’s also partly reflected in the terrible damage being done to these communities on an environmental front. Situations like in Ireland, where our Environment Mi

Madam President, I voted in favour of this resolution because I think the public’s access to documents really plays a crucial role in ensuring that EU institutions operate transparently. It is absolutely critical for investigative media, for interest groups, for civil society or for individual citizens. And let’s be honest, the Ombudsman’s special report reveals significant and systemic delays in

Madam President, when we talk about a healthy lifestyle, I think there’s no doubt about it but the cost of living crisis and anxiety are one of the main obstacles to healthy, active ageing. Now, this morning, the Parliament debated the deteriorating living conditions in the Union. We know that, between 2021 and 2022, the prices of basic products rose by almost 17% at EU level. Seeing your savings

Mr President, the Irish people won the right to legal, safe and free abortion in 2018 (two thousand and eighteen). This happened after many years of fighting against constitutional bans, and a situation where women had the right to travel to get an abortion outside the country, but not at home. People were fed up with this rotten pretense, attributed to us by the Magdalene laundry houses and the M

Mr President, this week’s resolution on Afghanistan is a tour of force. It really is. Gaslighting, phoney feminism, weaponised concern: all the greatest hits. Twenty years of NATO war and occupation that visited suffering, death and destruction on the women of Afghanistan: according to this resolution, it never happened. The empowerment and consolidation of the Taliban from that war and occupation

Mr President, as the people of Gaza face agonising death from orchestrated starvation, the EU is so concerned about the humanitarian situation that some of its Member States cut the UNRWA funding and increased arms to Israel. The US is so troubled, it’s building a pier and air-dropping food, but there’s hundreds of trucks already at the border-crossing full of supplies. It’s just they’re being pre

Mr President, this is the first EU legislation regarding spyware, and as it stands, unless our amendments are accepted, we are legislating to authorise its use against journalists. The great EU that defends media freedom, that flies the flag of democracy against authoritarianism, is authorising the unleashing of spyware against journalists. We already know it’s been used against journalists and po

Madam President, we watch in horror the live-stream genocide in Gaza. We see aid deliberately obstructed to a starving people. Meanwhile, the Maasai people are deported from their ancestral lands in Ngorongoro: women and children shot if they refused to leave; hundreds dying in recent months of a lack of blood products and basic health care. They need 9 000 bags of maize to ensure their basic surv