What Mick spoke about.

5

Feb

2024

EN Speech

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Instant payments in euro (debate)

Madam President, (start of speech off mic) ... the speed, ease and availability of instant payments on apps like Revolut and Monzo have been welcome, but the legislative proposal does not include any considerations regarding the prospective energy consumption and possibilities to ensure energy efficiency if the use of instant payments is increased. While instant payments can enhance financial incl…

18

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Situation in Hungary and frozen EU funds (B9-0086/2024)

Madam President, this motion calls on Hungary to behave better and condemns the reported systematic discriminatory practices against academia, journalists, political parties and civil society. It’s a pity the EU doesn’t apply the same standards to all equally. Ukraine is a country where corruption is manifest on an unprecedented scale, but which has its membership to the EU fast tracked. In 2021, …

18

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need to reach a ceasefire and the risks of regional escalation (RC-B9-0068/2024, B9-0068/2024, B9-0069/2024, B9-0071/2024, B9-0073/2024, B9-0075/2024, B9-0077/2024)

Madam President, I voted against this resolution on Gaza. It calls for a ceasefire, but the Parliament has voted to make it conditional on the dismantling of Hamas, the same pretext Netanyahu has for his genocide. In spirit, the resolution stands with Israel. It’s a document whitewashing and justifying murder and oppression. The racism of the EU runs deep but is bared for all to see here. The reso…

18

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Gender aspects of the rising cost of living and the impact of the energy crisis (A9-0430/2023 - Alice Kuhnke)

Madam President, the current inflation crisis, much of it self-inflicted by the Ukraine war and the sanctions that we introduced that are hurting us more than Russia, has battered European purchasing power, a crushing burden on the shoulders of working people. Single-parent households are particularly affected, 85% of which are led by single mothers. This winter, across Europe, many of them are fa…

18

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Recent EU-Audits identifying that Uruguayan and Argentinian meat from horses with unreliable sworn declarations and unknown drug history is entering the EU (debate)

Madam President, audits carried out in Argentina and Uruguay highlight once again the major issues with animal welfare, traceability and food safety for these countries. Poorly treated horses are commonly given drugs that are prohibited in the EU, and the traceability systems in place are unreliable, as they rely on the honesty of horse owners and dealers, leaving it wide open for fraud. As a resu…

18

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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EU Action Plan: protecting and restoring marine ecosystems for sustainable and resilient fisheries (debate)

Mr President, the EU already has a comprehensive body of policy and legislation aimed at protecting the marine environment, but these are not being implemented. This was confirmed by the European Court of Auditors in 2020. Ireland, for example, has utterly failed to meet the EU’s obligation to achieve good environmental status for biodiversity, commercial fish and shellfish and seafloor integrity.…

18

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy and future perspectives (debate)

Mr President, Commissioner, the common fisheries policy needs to be urgently amended to address the hugely disproportionate impact of Brexit on the Irish fishing industry. Ireland needs to see some genuine burden-sharing, whereby all coastal Member States share the pain of Brexit equally and proportionately. Ireland got an increase in its mackerel quota last month worth about EUR 3 million. But pu…

17

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2022 and 2023 (debate)

Madam President, this report starts by claiming the EU is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy and equality, the rule of law and human rights, and that these values should be shared and upheld and actively promoted by the EU and the Member States in their internal and external actions. And then you think of the ethnic cleansing in Gaza. The murder of 10 000 childr…

17

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Extending the list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crime (debate)

Madam President, the Minister for Justice in Ireland published a hate crime bill in 2022. If this was already law, the Irish Prime Minister, our Taoiseach, could well be facing a charge of grossly trivialising or denying genocide. In relation to South Africa’s case against Israel, the Irish leader said genocide is defined as the deliberate attempt to destroy an entire nation or entire race, or to …

17

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Improving the socio-economic situation of farmers and rural areas, ensuring fair incomes, food security as well as a just transition (debate)

Madam President, many people who have no connection to the farming community think that all farmers have a lot of money, and the truth is that some farmers do have a lot of money, but a whole lot of farmers don’t. Now, the CAP system has certainly got a fair bit to do with it, and there’s a couple of sides to that. People resent the fact that farmers get cheques and get subsidised. Well, the reaso…

17

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Norway's recent decision to advance seabed mining in the Arctic (debate)

Mr President, Norway has somehow been successful in promoting itself as a global leader of sustainability, despite a quarter of its economic activity being generated by the export of fossil fuels. But they can’t start a global deep-sea mining race in the name of sustainability. Deep-sea mining would wreak havoc, with corporations dredging, digging and scraping the ocean floor, creating sediment pl…

16

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Role of preventive diplomacy in tackling frozen conflicts around the world – missed opportunity or change for the future? (debate)

Madam President, this report claims the EU can play a positive role in preventive diplomacy in tackling frozen conflicts around the world. The past two decades are a dramatic demonstration of how the EU does precisely the opposite: Kosovo, Syria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine, Israel, Palestine. Just look at the genocide taking place at the moment in Gaza. We haven’t time to go back over all the colon…

16

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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EU-India relations (debate)

Madam President, it would seem that the great hopes for India as Washington’s counterweight to China, have been shelved for the moment. India refused to get on board with the Russian sanctions, and the two countries are busy strengthening defence cooperation and trade relations, while it seems the US and China have made some steps towards de-escalation in their trade war. If this was a less signif…

16

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need to reach a ceasefire and the risks of regional escalation (debate)

Madam President, 100 days of international inaction. 100 days of double standards. 100 days of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians. Over 24 000 innocent civilians dead, over 10 000 of them children, many thousands still under the rubble – and youse are wondering if this is a genocide? Almost 2 million displaced and still being bombed. Hospitals, churches, mosques, bakeries, apartments bombe…

16

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Transparency and accountability of non-governmental organisations funded from the EU budget (debate)

Mr President, not all NGOs are perfect. Far from it. Some so-called human rights NGOs are, in fact, often guilty of instrumentalising human rights in the service of Western interests and imperialism. There are also lots of great NGOs who do amazing work, like Irish Wildlife Trust, Birdwatch Ireland, Carbon Market Watch. They have integrity and expertise and are constructive. We should be looking a…

16

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Empowering consumers for the green transition (debate)

Mr President, climate neutrality claims based on offsetting are a massive contributor to climate mitigation deterrence. Climate claims for products based on carbon offsetting will now, based on Parliament’s work, be added to the list of unfair commercial practices. This ban is limited to products, it doesn’t cover company-wide claims, but it is still significant. These changes are also currently i…

16

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Keeping commitments and delivering military assistance to Ukraine (debate)

Mr President, this is a war that could have been prevented, a war that could have been stopped as early as April 2022. But we didn’t want peace. We wanted war. We wanted to promote a US-NATO proxy war in the effort to damage Russia. We spent billions of EU taxpayers’ money fuelling a war that wasn’t in our interest, and has helped to destroy Ukraine for no good reason. Ukraine wants to recruit a h…

15

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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The role of social award criteria in public procurement in strengthening social rights, good working conditions and inclusive labour markets (debate)

Mr President, the EU public procurement directives allow contracting authorities to promote social inclusion, the protection of the environment, and look to ensure the compliance of tender awards with social, labour and environmental legislation. However, even with these directives incorporated into law in the various Member States, a public procurement process can result in disaster. In 2019, in …

15

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Revision of the European Labour Authority mandate (debate)

Madam President, the persistence of complex labour market schemes involving undeclared work, abusive subcontracting, intermediaries and shell companies have had a severe impact on European workers, but none more so than on migrant workers. The European Labour Authority has done well so far to combat this through its cross-border actions, but it can do more if given the support of a stronger mandat…

15

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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The need for an EU and international response to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and for continued support to the Yemeni peace process (debate)

Madam President, the Houthis have made a humanitarian intervention in the Red Sea in an effort to bring the genocide in Gaza to an end. The Houthis have killed nobody while disrupting shipping in the Red Sea, ships which were facilitating the Israeli genocide. The Israeli regime has killed over 23 000 civilians. Over 10 000 of them are children. So who do the US and the UK attack? No, they didn’t …

15

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Amendments to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) - Amendments to the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) (joint debate - Markets in financial instruments regulations)

Madam President, in the last 20 years, beginning in the year 2000, there’s been a gradual deregulation of the financial markets worldwide, beginning with the United States, with the rest of the world, including the EU, following suit. This deregulation has continued at pace, notwithstanding the global financial crisis of 2008. The gradual encroachment of financial speculators into new domains, suc…

15

Jan

2024

EN Speech

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Ozone depleting substances - Fluorinated gases regulation (joint debate - Gas emissions)

Mr President, fluorinated gases are supercharged greenhouse gases. Their impact on the climate is often thousands of times more powerful than that of CO2. F-Gas emissions have increased by 60% since 1990, and it's well past time that we seriously tackle their use. The heat pump industry has expressed a lot of concern about this regulation. Heat pumps are essential for Europe's energy transition. I…

14

Dec

2023

EN Speech

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Attempt of coup d’Etat in Guatemala (RC-B9-0526/2023, B9-0526/2023, B9-0527/2023, B9-0528/2023, B9-0529/2023, B9-0530/2023, B9-0531/2023)

Mr Preisdent, you know, the far-right forces in Guatemala are certainly making fools of themselves when they can’t even get the European Parliament on board. Last year, the EU parliament supported the far right coup against President Pedro Castillo in Peru and his replacement by the unelected Dina Boluarte, whose regime killed at least 57 protesters in a series of massacres. The Parliament support…

14

Dec

2023

EN Speech

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Frontex, building on the fact-finding investigation of the LIBE Working Group for Frontex Scrutiny (B9-0499/2023)

Mr President, if ever there was a single entity that symbolises the current state of the European Union, it’s Frontex, the European border and Coastguard Agency. Frontex, currently the EU’s number one funded agency, personifies the direction the European Union has taken since the von der Leyen Commission took over the reins in 2019. It’s an agency with a mission statement that includes being respe…

14

Dec

2023

EN Speech

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Young researchers (B9-0491/2023)

Mr President, there is a postgraduate research crisis in Ireland. Many postgrad researchers can no longer afford basic necessities such as food, rent, heating, due to their lack of funding and working status. Now research and the title of this is Young Research. I mean, we have a secondary school curriculum in Ireland and there’s absolutely no initiative around research. I mean, we need to teach y…