What Grace spoke about.

18

Apr

2023

EN Speech

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The need for European solidarity in saving lives in the Mediterranean, in particular in Italy (debate)

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…

16

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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European Citizens’ Initiative "Save bees and farmers! Towards a bee-friendly agriculture for a healthy environment" (debate)

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…

15

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Deaths at sea: a common EU response to save lives and action to ensure safe and legal pathways (debate)

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 ev…

14

Mar

2023

EN Speech

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Deterioration of democracy in Israel and consequences on the occupied territories (debate)

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 a…

13

Mar

2023

GA Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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 n…

14

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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CO2 emission standards for cars and vans (debate)

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…

1

Feb

2023

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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 del…

18

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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Criminalisation of humanitarian assistance, including search and rescue (debate)

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 kidn…

16

Jan

2023

EN Speech

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Shipments of waste (debate)

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…

13

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Prospects for the two-State solution for Israel and Palestine (debate)

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…

12

Dec

2022

EN Speech

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Towards equal rights for persons with disabilities (debate)

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 …

23

Nov

2022

EN Speech

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A post-2020 Global biodiversity framework and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 (debate)

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.…

20

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Commission implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1614 of 15 September 2022 determining the existing deep-sea fishing areas and establishing a list of areas where vulnerable marine ecosystems are known to occur or are likely to occur (debate)

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 …

20

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Commission implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1614 of 15 September 2022 determining the existing deep-sea fishing areas and establishing a list of areas where vulnerable marine ecosystems are known to occur or are likely to occur (debate)

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 …

17

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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 …

3

Oct

2022

EN Speech

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Momentum for the Ocean: strengthening Ocean Governance and Biodiversity (debate)

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 ve…

13

Sep

2022

EN Speech

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Consequences of drought, fire, and other extreme weather phenomena: increasing EU's efforts to fight climate change (debate)

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…

5

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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Objection pursuant to Rule 111(3): Amending the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act and the Taxonomy Disclosures Delegated Act (debate)

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 be…

5

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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Question Time (Commission) Increasing EU ambitions on biodiversity ahead of COP 15

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 …

5

Jul

2022

EN Speech

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Question Time (Commission) Increasing EU ambitions on biodiversity ahead of COP 15

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 har…

22

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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 sp…

22

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Implementation and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (debate)

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 p…

8

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Parliament’s right of initiative (debate)

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 t…

6

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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 s…

6

Jun

2022

EN Speech

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Article 17 of the Common Fisheries Policy Regulation (short presentation)

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 de…