Speeches

At this stage the Commission has stretched the word “simplification” so far it has lost all meaning. Nothing in this proposal will simplify life for ordinary people. It will make life easier for Big Tech to exploit extensive loopholes. This Digital Omnibus is not simplification; it is deregulation and corporate capture dressed as reform. Europe’s data-protection and AI safeguards are being weakened, not for small business owners but for corporate convenience. This is an attack on the privacy rights of EU citizens. Under this package, the compliance deadlines for high-risk AI, from biometric identification to credit-scoring systems, are delayed. Proposed changes to the GDPR risk narrowing what counts as personal data, allowing companies to treat information once protected, as something they can reuse. This is being sold to the public as a fix for cookie-banner fatigue. The real choice is far more serious: do we allow corporations to mine and repurpose sensitive personal data under an ever-expanding notion of “legitimate interest,” with less transparency and fewer safeguards than today? Whose interests are we defending? Certainly not those of the public. This hands another advantage to surveillance capitalism. Europe should strengthen digital rights, not dilute them to satisfy Big Tech billionaires.

Mr President, colleagues, there is now no doubt that Israel and the United States represent the greatest threat to global security and are a risk to social cohesion right across Europe. They have caused the worst oil and gas crisis in history, and for the cost of living in the EU to skyrocket. Israel and the United States are carrying out illegal wars, bombing school children, hunting and killing journalists and paramedics, and targeting our UN peacekeepers. And meanwhile, ordinary citizens in Europe look on aghast, not only at the tearing‑up of international law, but also at their own governments and EU institutions who seem to treat the energy crisis as a natural disaster and not as a direct consequence of US and Israeli actions. Fuel protests have already shut down Ireland, and the protests will spread across Europe if leaders fail to stand up for their citizens, if they fail to hold rogue states to account, if they fail to end their dependence on fossil fuels, fail to break the link between gas and renewables, and fail to rein in the corporate greed and tax the windfall profits.

Mr President, a chairde, as we debate this report, civil liberties in Europe are clearly under attack. Many Member States are attacking the right to protest and the right to express solidarity with the Palestinian people. We have seen artists censored for expressing solidarity. We have seen ordinary citizens beaten off the streets for protesting Israel's genocide in Gaza. We have seen the weaponisation of the charge of antisemitism to chill criticism of Israel. Member States like Germany and France have taken stronger actions against those protesting or engaging in civil disobedience than they have against the Israeli Government, a government that has legalised racialised capital punishment, that has further entrenched their apartheid regime and has committed genocide against the Palestinian people. Citizens across Europe are watching in horror as EU governments sacrifice hard‑won rights and liberties in order to protect themselves and the Israeli Government from criticism. And the question has to be asked: who is this for? Because it is not for the European citizens, but instead it's to protect Israel and Netanyahu's accomplices here in Europe.

Well, I do come from a working-class background in Tallaght in south-west Dublin and, unfortunately, you're right that it is in working-class areas that we see a lot more nitrous oxide canisters. I think we need to also invest. So while we need to restrict the nitrous oxide sales, we also need to invest in our working-class communities. We need to invest in providing community services for young people so that they have alternatives to using nitrous oxide. So you're right: this action that we're calling for today won't address the systemic problem of inequality that we have in society.

A Uachtaráin, I do welcome this important discussion on nitrous oxide. The so‑called laughing gas we know is a growing threat to public health and young people are particularly impacted. Nitrous oxide canisters with sweet flavours are being marketed at children. Inhaling nitrous oxide, as others have said, can cause sensory issues, heart problems, mental health issues and even long‑term spinal cord injuries. Added to this, we do have the littering, the greenhouse gas emissions from the nitrous oxide, the cost of the waste management and the risk to worker safety when they explode in waste processing centres. So, it is promising that the Commission is working on the EU‑wide restriction, but at national level, we can also have practical laws to manage access to nitrous oxide. This week, we heard how Ireland was a leader when it came to introducing Coco's Law. I think, again, Ireland has the opportunity to become a European leader in regulating the sale of nitrous oxide. My Sinn Féin colleague, Mark Ward, has proposed legislation that would restrict its sale to authorised users, while banning the sale of nitrous oxide to under 18s. Unfortunately, the Irish Government has chosen to delay this legislation. Every week that nitrous oxide goes unregulated, the damage to young people's health, worker safety and our environment increases. So, it is unfathomable why Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will not act now to protect young people and progress the sale of nitrous oxide bill while we await our Commission colleagues to bring forward their proposals.

A Uachtaráin, as Israel and the United States illegally attack Iran, and as the Israeli Government violates the sovereignty of Lebanon and displaces more than 700 000 people – 200 000 of whom are children; as Trump unleashes the brutal hand of imperialism on Latin America, the role of the International Criminal Court has never been more important. The EU has done nothing as the ICC has been attacked and its judges have been sanctioned for doing their jobs. The EU has failed to defend the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, as she has been attacked and sanctioned for telling the truth about the genocidal Israeli regime. The ICC is a cornerstone of international law and accountability for war crimes. Their work must be respected and the arrest warrants for war criminals like Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant must be executed. If we do not defend the ICC and international law, then the horrors that we see in the Middle East and in Latin America will eventually come for all of us.

A Uachtaráin, the WTO's 14th Ministerial Conference comes at a pivotal moment for the multilateral trading system. Yes, reform of the WTO is absolutely needed, but what is being suggested is a power grab by the world's wealthiest countries. This will only further disadvantage the Global South, and it will orient trade towards the profits of large corporations, rather than for the benefit of ordinary citizens. The push by the United States to move away from consensus decision-making, to abandon the most-favoured-nation for more plurilateral agreements and to attack development will undermine the multilateral trading system. We want to see reform of the WTO so that it can really deliver sustainable and fair trade, and if we do not defend multilateralism as a core principle of global trade, then we are ceding any sustainable future to the whims of the US. The EU's approach to date has been too deferential to Donald Trump and his cronies, and we must stand up for multilateralism and for real reform and not a power grab.

A Uachtaráin, when we look at everything that's justified as 'cutting red tape' today, we have to admit that we're really just cutting our social and environmental protections. The environmental omnibus strips down the permitting rules for anything strategic, and so-called 'strategic' defence infrastructure, airports and data centres will not help the green transition. In Ireland, data centres are pushing up the price of electricity for ordinary households and they're blowing a hole in Ireland's climate targets. The Industrial Accelerator Act wants to reduce permitting requirements for all factories in acceleration areas – despite our growing awareness that industrial pollution is destroying people's soils, water and health across the EU. At the same time, access to justice is being restricted by legal tools. Sweeping cuts to environmental rules and public participation will not give us a stable, just energy transition. For example, what we need is better resourcing of the planning system, not blocking people's rights to access justice. This simplification obsession will bring errors – but errors that will be felt for decades to come.

A Uachtaráin, it's very clear that the current trade turmoil is being cynically exploited to push through the investor court system that is in CETA, and we see this happening now with the Irish Government, one of the ten who hasn't ratified CETA, who are advancing legislation to introduce investor courts. If Canada is such a reliable partner, that colleagues have talked about tonight, if Canada is almost like an EU country, why then do we need investor courts between us? Investor courts are undemocratic bodies established to serve the interests of multinational corporations and undermine the right to regulate. The Global ISDS Tracker has highlighted that more than USD 100 billion of public money has been awarded to private investors in investor courts, with the bulk of those going to fossil fuel companies. So the EU has already recognised the danger of investor courts and has withdrawn from the Energy Charter Treaty because they accept that these courts undermine public policy, particularly on climate action. Yet the report before us ignores the real concerns of citizens right across Europe that their public money will be used for huge payouts to multinationals. I urge colleagues to vote against this report.

A Uachtaráin, on Saturday, an RSF drone attack murdered at least 24 people, including eight children, in the North Kordofan province. These people were refugees fleeing war and a humanitarian catastrophe, but this is only the latest in a series of drone attacks on humanitarian convoys, as violence in Sudan continues to escalate following the massacre at El-Fasher in October. Right now, Sudan's health system is on the brink of collapse, and an estimated 33.7 million people – around two thirds of the population – are expected to need humanitarian assistance in 2026. The EU must work to end this conflict and must hold to account those who are arming and fuelling this conflict, and this includes the United Arab Emirates, with whom the Commission seem content to begin negotiations around a free trade agreement, and whom this Parliament lacked the courage to criticise in our last resolution on Sudan. Human rights should be non-negotiable, but more and more it seems that the EU is willing to trade those human rights away.

A Uachtaráin, I voted in favour of this report. However, one of the most fundamental human rights which this report does not cover is the right to self-determination. For the Palestinian people, we consistently see that right ignored by the EU and other global powers. Trump's so-called 'Board of Peace' is more a blatant form of colonial rule in Gaza: there are no Palestinians on this board, and we have the likes of Tony Blair, Jared Kushner and now a man with an ICC arrest warrant out for him, Benjamin Netanyahu. The man responsible for the genocide is on a 'board of peace'. This is colonial plundering and the EU has said nothing. Self-determination for the Palestinian people is non-negotiable: the people of Gaza have survived over two years of Israeli genocide and are now being forced to suffer a new coloniser. Trump is charging countries who want a permanent seat at the table USD 1 billion. This is not a peace process, it is colonial rule by mercenaries.

Mr President, after hearing the debate last night, it would be forgotten that there are neutral countries in the EU that have no desire to join the military agenda or NATO. Ireland is a neutral country and EU actions are eroding this neutrality. The Commission is determined to erode social unity and channel massive amounts of public money to the arms industry. We need a social Europe committed to building real social unity. We need a European Union that is true to the fundamental principles of multilateralism and peacebuilding. Ireland's neutrality goes hand in hand with our struggle to run online for independence and for Irish unity. We are well aware of the world in which strength calls right.

A Uachtaráin, the EU-India summit comes at a crucial time for international cooperation and diplomacy. Engagement with India is vital, and I hope that the Commission will look to other international partners that we can cooperate constructively with, instead of the tendency to rely completely on the United States to shape our diplomatic initiatives. On the specifics to be discussed, I am concerned to see that one of the first issues mentioned in the Council conclusions from October on the strategic EU-India agenda is security. I believe that this embodies the manner in which the EU's militaristic agenda is shaping how it acts on the world stage. When engaging with any country, the very first things the EU should be discussing is human rights, international law and climate action. The EU should also be looking at how it can support peacebuilding in the region. All of us welcome the ceasefire between India and Pakistan following armed conflict last May, but I want to see the EU being active in genuine peacebuilding efforts. On human rights, I hope that the Commission will be raising the significant human rights issues at the summit and, in particular, that the EU should be highlighting the ethnic discrimination, the gender equality and the need to ensure a right to a healthy environment for all citizens. As a member of INTA, I am watching with great interest to see what kind of trade agreement might be concluded at the summit. We are not opposed to trade. We want fair trade, which supports sustainable economic development. But in scrutinising the final agreement, we must ensure that whatever is agreed is fully compliant with the EU legal order, including climate legislation, the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act and GDPR.

Madam President, the actions of the United States and Venezuela just illustrate the broader imperialistic stance of Donald Trump and his cronies towards Latin America. The reality is that they have kidnapped the Venezuelan Head of State and his wife, and have killed 83 civilians in the process. The actions of the United States are illegal under international law, and they are a thinly veiled attempt to engage in a large-scale resource grab in Venezuela. This is not about human rights, it's about oil and protecting power in the region. The EU's à la carte approach to international law is once again on display, and the failure of the EU to condemn the actions of Donald Trump is pure cowardice. Only the Venezuelans should have the right to decide on their future. The EU must stand against US imperialism everywhere it rears its ugly head. And as for the Irish Government, they need to kick the US military out of Shannon and defend Ireland's neutrality and protect international law.

A Uachtaráin, attacks on humanitarian workers are escalating across the globe. 2024 was the deadliest year for humanitarian workers on record, specifically, in the case of Palestine, where at least 531 humanitarian workers, including 366 United Nations personnel, were killed in the Gaza Strip between October 2023 and August 2025. We have an October 2025 ICJ advisory opinion, which clarifies quite clearly what the international law obligations of Israel are on facilitating humanitarian access and protecting humanitarian workers. The EU must now act to ensure that this advisory opinion is implemented, and that there is no more impunity for attacks on humanitarian workers. Also this year alone, 93 journalists have been killed and I commend all the journalists working in places such as Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan who risk their lives to ensure that no one can claim ignorance of the violent acts being committed. But we also see journalists threatened and forced into exile and escalating attacks on journalists covering areas such as environmental destruction. And what is really worrying is, again, the impunity for attacks on journalists, with most perpetrators going unpunished. I recall the murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022, and the fact that there has never been any accountability for her murder. The EU must hold state and non-state actors to account when they target journalists and ensure there is accountability and justice, regardless of which state is committing the war crimes.

Mr President, as we approach Christmas, many in this Chamber will look forward to spending time with their children to holding them tight. For Palestinian children, however, there is no safe place: 2025 has seen Palestinian children endure genocide, starvation, torture, mass displacement, enforced disappearance and relentless violence from settlers and the IDF. In the West Bank, the IDF has killed 54 children. Amir was shot seven times. The paramedics were blocked from reaching him while he was still alive. In Gaza, the situation is catastrophic: now home to the highest number of child amputees in the world, the children of Gaza face deep psychological trauma. Two-week-old Mohammad has died of hypothermia while tents continue to be blocked from entry. The genocidal Israeli regime is responsible for this barbarism, but so too is the EU, who has done nothing to hold Israel accountable, and who turns a blind eye to the foreign money that's funding Israeli lobbyists ELNET to shape EU policy, to spread disinformation and to pay for MEP junkets. Shame!

A Uachtaráin, in Ireland, thousands of much-needed new homes have been blocked from connecting to the electricity grid by data centres. Earlier this year, because of information requests that I made, I was able to reveal that the Minister for Energy had been warned that data centres would jeopardise the housing targets by taking up all the remaining spare capacity on the electricity grid. This was as a result of a first-come, first-serve policy, which ultimately favours big corporations with deep pockets, allowing them to secure grid access for their speculative projects while blocking desperately needed housing projects – this at a time when Ireland faces record levels of homelessness. When I challenged this, I was told that the EU rules mean that homes could not be prioritised even in a housing crisis – this is madness and it must change. System operators like the Electricity Supply Board must be able to have the discretion to put housing before data centres, and I hope that the grid package will deliver on this reform.

Madam President, the EDIP regulation is another giveaway to the arms industry, but this time we're not only giving them taxpayers' money, but we're also sacrificing our environmental and workers' rights protections, in order that weapons companies can make even more money. This regulation, as others have said, steamrolls over the Habitats Directive, water quality legislation and the Working Time Directive. The proposed defence security of supply board is an undemocratic front for the arms industry, who are being handed a huge amount of power with zero accountability. Let us be very clear: the top 100 arms companies are earning more money every single year. They earned USD 632 billion in 2023 alone. This proposal is an attempt to give them even more money and more power as they destroy our planet. This regulation is corporate capture personified, and I urge colleagues, for the sake of democracy and the citizens we represent, to vote against it. I would also remind colleagues in this House that I come from a country that is militarily neutral, so we do not want a European army, the EU is not a member of NATO, and let that not be forgotten. We are a neutral state and deserve respect.

Madam President, today, ten countries have not ratified the CETA trade agreement. Yet the Irish Government is getting ready to bring forward amendments to its Arbitration Act to ratify CETA and effectively bring investor courts to Ireland. Ratifying CETA and introducing investor courts so that large multinationals can sue our countries would be a disaster for housing, for climate, for workers' rights, for public health, and so much more. All of the free-trade elements of CETA have been in effect for years, all that remains are the dangerous corporate courts. Why are the Irish Government so hellbent on introducing corporate kangaroo courts that ordinary citizens cannot access? These courts have awarded sums exceeding USD 100 million in more than a quarter of all cases won by the corporations. The Irish Government seems unable to stand up and say 'no' to corporate courts, they have not withdrawn from the Energy Charter Treaty and are now facing a case from Predator Oil & Gas. So the Irish people will always say 'no' to CETA and 'no' to the corporate courts.

A Uachtaráin, as we debate the Barcelona Process and the pact for the Mediterranean, Israel is still murdering Palestinians in Gaza and dropping bombs on a civilian population. The Israeli government is escalating the de facto annexation of the West Bank, and the illegal Israeli settlers are still inflicting extreme violence on Palestinian communities in order to steal their land. In the communications around the new pact for the Mediterranean, the Commission claimed that it is a pact built on listening. They are clearly not listening to the screams of Palestinian children being murdered by Israel. They are not listening to the International Court of Justice, which has clearly said that we should ban trade with the settlements, and they are not listening to their own citizens, who do not want to be complicit in genocide and apartheid. The Commission is ignoring its duties under international law, and this new pact demonstrates its willingness to return to business as usual with a genocidal regime. Israel should be excluded from the pact. It should not be able to benefit from any of the three pillars of funding while it continues to murder Palestinians, maintain an apartheid regime, and actively sabotage all efforts towards peace and justice.

A Uachtaráin, I rise to make a point of order under Rules 2 and 229 of our Rules of Procedure. As Chair of the Delegation for Relations with Palestine, I have been banned by the Israeli authorities for five years. Three members of the delegation are now blocked from participating in their mandate and from going on missions to Palestine. There have also been defamatory comments made about myself by Israeli authorities and about civil servants who work for this institution. All of this is a deliberate attempt by the Israeli Government to frustrate the work of the delegation, which is a part of this institution, and it is an insult to the institution. Therefore I am asking you, President Metsola, to please make a public statement condemning this ban by Israel and also to take reciprocal actions. We cannot have Israeli politicians coming into this House when they refuse to allow the politicians who are elected to this institution to do their job.

President, COP30 is at a critical juncture for our people and planet with rising global temperatures and rising climate disasters. The profit forces are trying to get real climate action on their way. We need to talk about this issue - the military industry. With the power of the military industry in Europe growing, let us not forget that they profit from death and are responsible for the climate crisis and environmental destruction. Global military emissions account for 5.5% of global employment, excluding armed conflict itself. The European army industry and its supporters in this room are trying to betray our planet and our climate action. We now need to call for real action on military emissions and the military industrial complex that profits from burning our planet.

A Uachtaráin, 11 days ago, we welcomed the ceasefire, but since then, 153 tons of bombs have dropped on Gaza. 62 is the number of Israeli occupation forces shooting incidents in the West Bank. 67 000 is the very conservative estimate for Palestinians killed, unknown is the number under the rubble. 169 000 is the number of Palestinians injured, 4 000 is the number of children who have lost limbs. 154 is the number of children who have died from starvation. 355 is the number of bullets fired at Hind Rajab by the Israeli occupation forces. 1 722 is the number of health and aid workers murdered. 34 is the number of hospitals attacked. Almost 300 is the number of journalists and media workers murdered. 2 is the number of ICC arrest warrants for members of the Israeli Government. 0 is the number of actions taken by the European Union. This ceasefire cannot be an excuse for the EU to sit on its hands. Now is the time for the EU to restore its credibility and to end its complicity in this genocide. There can be no peace without justice – there must be accountability for the lives behind these numbers. Their lives have to mean something. So please, EU, there must be accountability.

A Uachtaráin, the legacy of the Palestinian genocide, the systematic failure of political leadership and, in some cases, the EU's act of complicity will have ramifications for decades. First and foremost, the profound trauma of mass displacement, of the loss of multiple generations of families, of tens of thousands of orphans, of forced starvation will be catastrophic. Palestinians may never be able to forgive the Western and Arab world, but it is not just Palestinians. Across Europe, young and old have taken to the streets in ever increasing numbers. They have been beaten and criminalised for standing up for international law. More than 100 civilians, EU civilians and three Members of this House were illegally abducted by Israel for trying to do what their governments should have been doing, which was to end the illegal blockade, and neither the Council nor the Commission thought to mention them today. How is this that a small, oppressive foreign regime built on racism and violent ideology has been able to infiltrate our institutions and dominate our foreign and domestic policy to create a situation where the freedoms, interests and wishes of our own citizens have been trampled on? We absolutely need the killing to stop, but this peace plan is colonialism. Gaza does not need a viceroy, and certainly not one who prosecuted an illegal war in Iraq. Gaza needs to be free from occupation, and Palestinians need to be treated with respect and given the autonomy for their own future. International law is the only framework for peace. Palestinians need more than EU money. They need justice.