Speeches

Mr President, Commissioners, colleagues, you know, just this week, we found out that Greece has decided to continue its endless persecution of Séan Binder, Sara Mardini and more than 20 other search and rescue workers who gave of their time selflessly to rescue migrants at sea in the Mediterranean. The Greek prosecution says that the humanitarians had no right to access case documents in their own language. It says the search and rescue workers should be prosecuted as spies. So I ask you: where is EU solidarity in supporting and protecting search and rescue workers? Greece continues to breach the rule of law. Greece must be held to account and the charges against these search and rescue workers must be dropped once and for all.

Mr President, dear colleagues, I hope you can hear the noise outside, the growing drumbeats and the marching children. Our own children are marching for climate action while we sit here and debate. Over 1 million people have signed this petition calling for us to protect us from ourselves, from the collapse of nature. In Ireland alone, where we have lost over half of our native plants, over 10 000 Irish people have signed this petition. Of all the crises, this is the one where we already have the solutions: less pesticides, less fertilizers, more room for nature. Yet, the largest group in this Chamber has called for a complete moratorium on green legislation. Our children are calling for action, and we won't allow you to stand in our way.

Mr President, colleagues, in the late 1980s I first saw someone drowning at sea. I was a crew member on board a Greenpeace ship, and we were on a campaign in the Mediterranean Sea just off Majorca. People often think of the Mediterranean as a calm sea. But that night, a ferocious storm was raging when we answered a mayday call. A sailing boat was going down in extremely rough conditions. We did everything we could, hauling the crew on board as the boat was sinking before our very eyes. Two made it. Two did not. Saving lives at sea is a duty, and Europe is failing to uphold that duty by closing legal pathways with illegal pushbacks, by persecuting humanitarians. The distress calls are still coming in. It’s time that we answered them. It’s time we answered them now.

Mr President, Vice-President Borrell, I recently returned from the occupied Palestinian territories. There I witnessed Israel directly extracting fossil fuels out from under Palestinian land. Despite your regular condemnations of Israel’s disregard for international law, the EU has rewarded Israel with a multimillion-euro gas deal. And my question to you, Mr Borrell, is why is one occupier’s oil and gas more acceptable than another’s?

Mr President, we are an island nation, from Malin Head to Ardferragh, from Leap Head to Carn Head. The sea has shaped our history and community, but down through history we have done little to protect it from pollution and climate change until now. This is the year to act for the sea in Ireland. This is the year we will establish extensive marine areas under legal protection. We will establish a new facility for sea planning. This is the year we go on the path of energy independence with wind at sea. Communities from all beaches and seaside towns will be needed. Are you on board?

Mr President, Commissioner Timmermans, colleagues, we are in a triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and unprecedented biodiversity loss. Resolving this will be one of the most difficult challenges we have ever taken on. One of the tasks we must face head-on is the transformation of our transport sector. Today, we make a significant step forward, with a landmark vote to end the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars by 2035. But this is not enough. We must follow up with massive investment in public transport, in accessible public services, in affordable electricity and rural infrastructure. Today, we set an entirely new vision for our towns and our rural areas. For a Europe made for people and not for traffic.

Mr President, later this month the European Parliament plans to send a delegation of MEPs to Palestine. It comes at a time when 35 Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed in January alone. Just last week, the President of Israel addressed this Parliament and said that his country is, I quote, “open to criticism, like all members in the family of nations”. Yet, this time last year, our delegation of MEPs was barred from travelling to the West Bank and Gaza, where Israel controls almost every facet of Palestinian life. This is not the behaviour of a country that is ‘open to criticism’. MEPs must be allowed to travel through Israel this month to assess the situation in Palestine. If they are not, this House must back its MEPs with swift action.

Mr President, ‘close and control’ – this is what the manager of Lesbos refugee camp last week told me was their policy for dealing with thousands of refugees. In a camp of barbed wire and shipping containers, it is a policy of a prison. Off the coast, illegal pushbacks of people in distress continue unabated. Locals and humanitarians in Lesbos recounted how masked men have been seen violently kidnapping refugees. Meanwhile, around 40 organisations work in constant fear of criminalisation after the example was made of Seán Binder, Sarah Mardini and over 20 search and rescue workers. Any new policy on migration and asylum must include protection for humanitarians, and immediately end the vast prison camp system we have established on EU borders. As long as desperate people flee desperate situations, ‘close and control’ does not work.

Mr President, we pay multiple times for our addiction to plastic. We pay at the till in the shop for mountains of plastic packaging – we have no choice but to buy those products. We pay again to have it taken away and shipped off to other countries for disposal. And we all pay when that waste finds its way into our rivers, onto our beaches, and into our soils. What we do with our waste goes to the heart of environmental justice. This means taking responsibility for the waste we produce rather than simply putting it out of sight, out of mind. Today, Parliament moves to ban the export of plastic waste. It is a huge challenge that will require systemic change, but the cost of inaction is so much higher.

Mr President, colleagues, because the idea of elected MEPs travelling to the West Bank was too much for Israel, I was not allowed into Palestine earlier this year, but recently I stopped in to Izz Cafe run by Izz and Eman in Cork City. They’ve set up a community and made a business, and like most Palestinians abroad, going home is almost impossible. The coming far—right government in Tel Aviv will undoubtedly make this even worse for Palestinians while they curtail the rights of women and minorities in Israel. We have come down hard on far—right movements here, most recently in Germany. A far—right government in Tel Aviv cannot be let off the hook. Europe must cut funding to Israel, end all arms exports, end trade with illegal settlements, and build a Palestinian state now.

Madam President, ‘rights not charity’. This is the slogan of the Clare Leader Forum, an inspiring group in my own constituency who campaigned tirelessly to overhaul the outdated bureaucracy faced by people with disabilities. Any Irish person living with a disability – intellectual or physical – knows the daily struggle to secure services that are considered basic in many parts of Europe. I recall the campaigner Trish McNamara saying to me that, as soon as she was in a wheelchair, it was like she turned invisible. Still today, people are forced into nursing homes for lack of alternative suitable accommodation. At the Owenacurra Centre in Middleton, Cork, the voices of the vulnerable residents and service users have been all but ignored. I myself am battling to get my own daughter the assistance she needs against a system that just does not want to know. Ireland has signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is time to put it into place.

Mr President, colleagues, in Irish mythology, the wild Irish salmon was an ancient symbol of knowledge and wisdom. Unfortunately, its wisdom has not been enough to save it from people. Latest figures show Irish Atlantic salmon populations are in dire condition due to overfishing, ocean warming and the destruction of our rivers. The stark reality is that we have lost 70% of all wildlife since 1970. So since my childhood, we are witnessing a complete ecological breakdown. So it’s high time to act. We need urgent leadership at the COP15 Conference in Montreal in December. We need a global ocean treaty; marine protected areas to cover a third of the world’s seas, and an ambitious restoration law backed by all EU governments. This is our last chance. Otherwise, in a few years from now, many creatures, such as the wild Irish salmon, will be nothing but the stuff of legend.

The evidence is there, and that is why the Commission is imposing this act. And the fact that we have vulnerable areas and creating more space for fish and for other species, and to provide them with that protection, is critical. As others have said here today, the benefit of this will be sustainable, resilient fishing into the future. And that’s what we’re trying to do: we’re trying to recognise that the marine ecosystems are in trouble and they are in trouble from destructive fishing practices, and that if we reverse this, we will actually increase the opportunities for fishers, for fisher families, for marine life and for society and people in general.

Madam President, protecting vulnerable marine ecosystems is critical not only for nature but for people. The fact that we even have to debate here today is shocking. Last week, we learnt that nature is in freefall. We have seen a devastating 70% drop in wildlife populations in my lifetime. Not even the deep seas are safe from this collapse. Yet there are those speaking here in the House today who still are open to more destruction in the oceans, to drilling, to mining, to bottom trawling, even in vulnerable marine areas. We are at the beginning of a process which, if done properly, could result in the greatest decade of marine protection in history. Ireland has committed to increasing marine protected areas to 30% by 2030, and even the EU has now decided to move forward with strictly protecting over 16 000 square kilometres of fragile habitats in Irish waters from extensive trawling. This is an area the size of Cork, Kerry, Waterford and Wexford combined. It is high time now to take this measure and improve on it with national legislation in every Member State to establish effective functioning marine ecosystems. It's time to stop nature freefall on land and at sea. (The speaker agreed to respond to a blue-card speech)

Mr President, in May of this year, Israeli soldiers shot and killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The EU condemned it. A month later, President von der Leyen flew to Tel Aviv and signed a multi-million euro deal for Israeli gas. Last month, Israel raided Palestinian civil society organisations, which are funded by the EU. The EU condemned it. In the last few days, a city the size of Cork has been besieged by the Israeli army. Josep Borrell said the situation was just ‘worrisome’. Now he must tell us how many human rights violations are permitted before facing consequences from the EU. How many more journalists murdered? How many schools and neighbourhoods demolished? How many internments? How many sieges before the EU acts on apartheid?

Madam President, there is great news from Ireland today. As of today, one of the largest living creatures on earth can celebrate a small victory. As of today, the great basking shark has been given protected status in Irish waters. And with this resolution we table in the European Parliament, as of today we make our voices heard that the protection of our ocean is not just a kind gesture to the very place where life began, but an urgent necessity if we are to protect biodiversity, the seas and even our atmosphere. Our demands are modest, yet they still face opposition from powerful industrial and political interests. We want real marine protected areas for at least 30% of our oceans; an international moratorium on deep—sea mining now; and a total ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and the Antarctic. These are real steps we can make in order to save thousands of species – such as the basking shark – from extinction. So support our coastal communities, support ocean life and support this resolution.

Mr President, colleagues, 2022 is fast becoming the year of the unthinkable. An all-out Russian invasion in Europe. One third of an entire country, Pakistan, underwater. Temperatures reaching 30 degrees in Carlow. All of these events linked in some way with our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels. But other unthinkable achievements bring hope. We defeated one of the worst pandemics in history. We have built renewable electricity levels to previously unimaginable levels: 40% in Ireland. We have come out battered by over two years separated from our loved ones. Now we are facing, too, a cold winter. But we have shown that when we act in solidarity as a Union, we can make the unthinkable reality. A full climate transition may seem a distant challenge now, but if we are to defeat flood, drought and war, it is the only future imaginable.

Mr President, just let me be clear, Commissioner, as far as I’m concerned, you have labelled fossil gas as a green investment, and this is the truth. So it now falls on us in this Chamber to stop this moral and economic madness. These past few weeks, delegation after delegation of Ukrainian representatives have come to this House with one request: do not support more investments in gas. It only benefits Russian oligarchs. Our children and young adults are taking to the streets with one request: do not invest in more fossil fuels. It only benefits the wealthy. And yet tomorrow, many MEPs in this House will vote to define fossil gas as a green investment. Tomorrow, this House has the power to end this full—on, blatant greenwashing. So I have another request in particular to some of my Irish MEPs: don’t pander to the lobbyists, to the warmongers, to the oligarchs. Vote for real climate change by rejecting this proposal.

I know you are a man of ambition and I really do believe you should push for those binding targets. We have them in the climate law and, as I said, if we do not have them binding, they won’t happen. Lastly, on the environmentally harmful subsidies: maybe you could think of a hierarchy, once you identify the environmentally harmful subsidies, a hierarchy of the ones that would give us the greatest effect over the shortest period of time.

Good to see you here today, Commissioner. Look, it’s clear that environmentally harmful subsidies given by the EU are causing significant harm to biodiversity. So can you tell us, is the EU in the high ambition camp regarding commitments to phase out or reform environmentally harmful subsidies? And related to this, is the Commission on track to produce a methodology to identify environmentally harmful subsidies by 2023, as we committed to in the eighth environmental action programme (8th EAP). And then in terms of consumption: food production, consumption and overconsumption are having an impact on biodiversity. So what is the EU pushing for in relation to consumption footprint targets and when will the Commission introduce the EU 2030 reduction targets for consumption footprint, another commitment that was in the 8th EAP? And lastly, in terms of political will: Commissioner, you’re going to the COP15 later in the year but I genuinely feel that we need to call for a legally binding agreement at that Conference because we’ve seen that we failed in the past in terms of biodiversity and monitoring isn’t enough. It has to be legally binding otherwise, as you know and I know, it won’t happen.

Madam President, I just want to say that I’m appalled at the toxic anti-trans sentiment that has been raging internationally and has made its way to the Irish airwaves during the Pride Month. The viral spread of inflammatory, inaccurate rhetoric and lies is leaving hurt and confusion in its wake. It’s putting people’s lives in danger. Those who use the power of letters and words and language to spread messages of hate must know that their vitriol will be matched and countered by the unassailable power of love. Language is power. Words are power. Letters are power. In those letters LGBTI, the ‘T’ is welcome and the ‘T’ stays. Trans rights must be respected and trans rights must be protected.

Mr President, I should like to say hello to the Commissioner. So today, MEPs of all political colours will talk about the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals, and rightly so. The SDGs remain the only international agreement to build a more equitable and resilient world that prospers within the planetary boundaries. But nice words about SDG implementation today are no good if we don’t put those words into practice and actively work towards increasing ambition in the legislation we work on every day as MEPs. On environment, that means increased ambition on climate, increased ambition on biodiversity and increased ambition on reducing pollution. It means voting against greenwashing and in favour of genuine sustainability. I call on everyone to remember this during crucial votes in this House in the coming weeks and months. Do the right thing by the SDGs: not just words today, but in meaningful action every day.

Mr President, ‘democratic deficit’ is the term used by people who argue that the EU institutions and their decision-making procedures suffer from a lack of democracy and seem inaccessible to citizens. In the European Parliament, we, some 705 elected MEPs, represent the EU’s 448 million citizens in the only directly elected EU institution and as part of one of the largest democratic assemblies in the world. While the role of the European Parliament has been progressively enhanced through the recent treaties, we have always believed that there should be a further strengthening of Parliament’s power by way of the right to initiate legislation. Such a right to initiate is a commonplace in parliamentary systems throughout the world. The Conference on the Future of Europe has been a worthy democratic exercise. To give effect to the conclusions of the conference and to strengthen democracy, we must progress the right of this Parliament to initiate legislation.

Madam President, so, summer is coming and with it, all the excitement of sun and sea swims. But, sadly, there’s not so much excitement in store for locals and visitors to beautiful Bunmahon Beach in Waterford in Ireland. Some months ago, I joined local and national Green Party colleagues in highlighting appalling raw sewage pollutant impacting the river Mahon at that beach where local wastewater systems have gone far beyond capacity. Ireland has already been fined for lack of compliance under EU legislation, but Bunmahon’s issues are not unique within the county or at national or European level. National legislation is adequate, but local agencies must be resourced to act now to avoid sanction and to address a vile situation that threatens local ecosystems, public health, summer tourism potential and the simple joy that children should be able to experience on safe trips to unpolluted beaches.

Madam President, the Greens in the European Parliament have long been fighting hard to get this report on fairness and sustainability in fisheries on the agenda. Simply put, we cannot have fairness in fisheries when EU policies encourage the concentration of fishing opportunities in the hands of a few big players. We cannot have sustainability while the EU prioritises industrial fishing methods despite their environmental and social impacts. In Ireland this is evident, where only 2% of the mackerel quota is allocated to low—impact fishers who often have to stop fishing by mid—year, having met their catch limit. In the face of biodiversity collapse, overfishing and rapidly warming oceans, the EU must prioritise environmental and social benefits over industrial profits and fisheries. The EU must get serious about enforcing Article 17 of the common fisheries policy and implement the findings of this excellent report by rapporteur Caroline Roose.