What Billy spoke about.

21 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Empowering the Single Market to deliver a sustainable future and prosperity for all EU citizens (debate)

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Madam President, the Letta report and the Draghi report are a wake-up call for the European Union in terms of digitisation, the Green Deal, our knowledge economy, investing in innovation, research and development, ensuring that we have growth and competitiveness. The single market, the internal market, is a cornerstone on which all of this is built, and we have to protect it and ensure that it pro…

10 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Consequences of the devastating forest fires in the Amazon and the importance of the Amazon for climate change (debate)

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Madam President, we must incentivise countries to protect the most valuable ecosystem on the planet. Unfortunately, to date we have incentivised its destruction and we intend to do that by supporting the Mercosur agreement, which I find very hard to fathom, which is incompatible with the goals stated by the Commissioner around protecting this valuable ecosystem. Let us be under no illusions. The v…

7 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Facing fake news, populism and disinformation in the EU - the importance of public broadcasting, media pluralism and independent journalism (debate)

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Madam President, independent media and journalism is under attack across the globe and, sadly, inside our European Union as well. Over recent years, the ability of journalists and public broadcasters to hold politicians and state institutions to account has been eroded by the actions of certain governments. This cannot be allowed to continue, Commissioner. An independent, free media is a cornersto…

19 Sep

2024

EN Speech

The historic CJEU ruling on the Apple state aid case and its consequences (debate)

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Mr President, we accept the ECJ Court ruling. It's obviously assessing on a historical context, and since that, Ireland has engaged fully with the OECD in terms of international taxation – both Pillar One and Pillar Two. It has implemented the corporate residence rules, the base erosion and profit shifting. It has implemented the anti-tax avoidance directive and the minimum tax directive. But just…

17 Sep

2024

EN Speech

War in the Gaza Strip and the situation in the Middle-East (debate)

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Madam President, it's almost a year since the barbaric attacks of Hamas on 7 October, which killed over 11 000 people and took hundreds of people hostage, many of whom are still in captivity, and I call for their immediate release. And the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza has been described as a genocide, as a war crime. It has been described by politicians as that, but equally the Internationa…

17 Sep

2024

EN Speech

The future of European competitiveness (debate)

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Madam President, I very much welcome the Draghi report on European competitiveness. And just to say a few things stand out quite clearly, and that's the issue of capital, in other words, the Banking Union, the Capital Markets Union, access to finance. There is no doubt that traditional banking systems that we had in Europe for many years are no longer functioning, and for us to unleash our potenti…

17 Sep

2024

EN Speech

Global measures towards social media platforms - Strengthening the role of DSA and protecting democracy and freedom in the online sphere (debate)

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Mr President, what is being broadcast and disseminated on X and other social media platforms is sowing seeds of disharmony in our Union and, sadly, facilitating violence on our streets. Last month, violence erupted on the streets of Belfast in Ireland. It was encouraged and spurred on by the comments of the owner of X, Elon Musk. His comments were about civil war and, I believe, a deliberate attem…

25 Apr

2024

EN Speech

Pre-enlargement reforms and policy reviews (debate)

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Madam President, while Treaty change may be required in the event of extra enlargement, I believe at this stage what we should do is prepare citizens, both within the European Union and in the candidate countries, to ensure that we can have a seamless merging of candidate countries. There is no doubt that there are concerns that some countries would not be able to live with the pace of the Europea…

14 Mar

2024

EN Speech

Promised revision of the EU animal welfare legislation and the animal welfare-related European citizens’ initiatives (debate)

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Madam President, firstly, I welcome any proposals that would improve animal transport regulations and the obvious mistake made over the last number of years was we did not enforce Regulation 2005. I sat on the Committee of inquiry that looked at that, and it also made recommendations. And I very much welcome the proposals put forward in terms of ensuring that we transport animals in a way that res…

13 Mar

2024

EN Speech

European Semester for economic policy coordination 2024 – European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social priorities for 2024 (joint debate – European Semester)

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Mr President, it seems that some groups have used this European Semester report to try to undermine the work done on finally reaching an agreement on the new economic governance framework for the EU itself. And this is clearly very disappointing. I actually believe that this is quite a good agreement, in the sense that it gives flexibility in terms of spending and ensures that we have sustainabili…

12 Mar

2024

EN Speech

EU climate risk assessment, taking urgent action to improve security and resilience in Europe (debate)

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Madam President, this EU risk assessment indicates quite clearly the challenges that we face as a continent in addressing the climate change. My country, Ireland, has already declared a climate emergency and we have to act with urgency, both in terms of mitigation and also adaptation: mitigation in ensuring that we move to carbon-free electricity generation, wind, solar and also nuclear energy acr…

29 Feb

2024

EN Speech

Commission recommendation on secure and resilient submarine cables (debate)

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Mr President, data is at the heart of the Irish economic success story. We are home to 16 of the 20 largest tech companies, the top three enterprise software companies. We have 82 data centres from companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Apple located in the country. Crucially and most importantly, three quarters of all subsea cables in the northern hemisphere pass through or near Irish waters with…

27 Feb

2024

EN Speech

War in the Gaza Strip and the need to reach a ceasefire, including recent developments in the region (debate)

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Madam President, there’s calls in this house for funding to be suspended from UNRWA, and there is proof that maybe up to five people were some way complicit with the attacks on 7 October. Yet, the Israeli Defence Forces and its government are in Gaza at the moment, pillaging and plundering and murdering people, according to the International Court of Justice, according to international law and acc…

27 Feb

2024

EN Speech

Geographical Indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products (debate)

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Mr President, I welcome this report and I think that geographical indications are a critically important component in recognising the diverse quality of food production across Europe in terms of its culture, its heritage and its general traditions – and it is of a high quality. And I do welcome the recommendations around the consolidation of rules, ensuring the integrity of assessing and awarding,…

27 Feb

2024

EN Speech

Unitary supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products - Unitary supplementary certificate for medicinal products - Supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products (recast) - Supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products (recast) - Standard essential patents (joint debate - Patents)

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Mr President, this proposed regulation on standard essential patents has become fairly controversial and divisive over the last few weeks. Let’s strip it back to what the objectives of such a proposal should be: one, establishing a framework that will ultimately benefit the consumer, either by lowering the cost of these technologies, increasing the availability of technologies, or simply improving…

26 Feb

2024

EN Speech

European Central Bank – annual report 2023 (debate)

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Mr President, I welcome the report and the discussions on the same. Obviously, price stability is critically important and it is your major mandate in the ECB. But I do want to put on the record the serious challenges that we have in the Irish economy with regard to lending to small and medium-sized businesses. I have raised this with your predecessor, I’ve raised it with you, I’ve raised it with …

6 Feb

2024

EN Speech

Plants obtained by certain new genomic techniques and their food and feed (debate)

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Madam President, the starting premise of this regulation is that NGT plants are plants that could be obtained by conventional breeding methods. So, we should embrace the science and trust science when it comes to stating what NGTs are. They are not genetically modified organisms, as has been consistently portrayed here in this House, where there’s been no honest engagement in this whole process ri…

18 Jan

2024

EN Speech

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

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Mr President, (start of speech off mic) ... to ensure that we have sustainable ecosystems for fishers is a critically important aspect of policy. But at the same time, off the west coast of Ireland, as I speak in this Chamber, factory fishing ships are scooping up fish and massive quantities of the west coast of Ireland, in Irish waters. And the solution that has been offered to ensure that we hav…

18 Jan

2024

EN Speech

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

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Mr President, overall, the EU was very supportive of Ireland during the Brexit negotiations and the Irish people appreciate what the EU did for us. However, on the issue of fisheries, Commissioner, Ireland lost out heavily. By 2025, Irish fishers will have been forced to accept a 15% cut in quotas – approximately 50 million per annum. This is a huge blow to our fishing industry, much of which is c…

17 Jan

2024

EN Speech

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

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Madam President, farmers and farming in general are critical elements of the strong, vibrant rural communities across all of Europe. In my own country, farming activities sustain villages and small towns, they provide incomes for families and support local businesses. Without farming, we would have no food security across Europe. So it annoys the hell out of me when I hear lazy commentary from som…

17 Jan

2024

EN Speech

Review of the economic governance framework (debate)

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Mr President, by default, I’m an optimist. But at times we also have to be realistic. The European economy has faced many challenges over the last five years. Unfortunately, we are going to face many more over the next number of years. To reach our 2050 climate neutrality goals it is estimated that we will have to spend an additional EUR 360 billion per annum. Our populations are getting older, an…

16 Jan

2024

EN Speech

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

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Madam President, we must continue to condemn Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. Israel claims to be a democratic country acting in self-defence, but at this stage, 24 000 Palestinians lie dead in Gaza. We have done nothing to condemn what is happening there. We can’t even agree to a ceasefire in this particular Chamber. We can’t even get humanitarian aid to those that are suffering. There is now potential…

12 Dec

2023

EN Speech

EU-US relations (debate)

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Mr President, the US-EU relationship is the most enduring relationship in modern history in terms of shared values, politically, economically and even culturally at this stage. And of course there’s going to be challenges from time to time. I do very much welcome the Trade and Technology Council, for example, that will allow discussions around issues of common interest, but also at times when we a…

12 Dec

2023

EN Speech

Need to release all hostages, to achieve a humanitarian ceasefire and prospect of the two-state solution (debate)

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Mr President, (start of speech off mic) ... an immediate ceasefire and we need hostage release. But let us be very clear: the root cause of this is the fact that the Palestinians do not have their own homeland. We have had the Madrid Conference of 1991, the Oslo Accords, Camp David in 2000, and yet we have the continual flouting of international law by Israel. Mr Borrell, we have consistently call…

11 Dec

2023

EN Speech

The European Elections 2024 (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, you said at the outset of your speech that democracy is the ‘individual right to be heard’. Of course, we speak about individuals, constituents, constituencies and Member States. But it’s equally important that we ensure that individual Member States’ right to be heard is protected as well. In this particular report, I just want to bring some concerns to your attenti…