What Barry spoke about.

12 Dec

2023

EN Speech

Defence of democracy package (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioners and colleagues, I think, as we all know, we are living through a democratic recession. According to Freedom House, less than 7% of people live in full democracies across the world, which is an astonishing figure in 2023. And 2024 is a crossroads, with 4 billion people entitled to vote in elections, and that will be a record. As both Commissioners pointed out, there i…

11 Dec

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, Sellafield is a nuclear waste and storage site on the west coast of England, less than 100 miles from the east coast of Ireland. It stores 140 tonnes of plutonium, but it has been described as a bottomless pit of hell, money and despair. After a year-long investigation, The Guardian newspaper revealed last week that there are very serious dangers at the s…

11 Dec

2023

EN Speech

The European Elections 2024 (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, it is truly astonishing to me to meet other MEPs who know that they will be in the next Parliament because of how high they are on their party lists. They know they’re going to be in the next mandate, and it should be obvious to all of us that this disincentivises those candidates from investing time and energy into the process. Those of us who will seek …

23 Nov

2023

EN Speech

International day for the elimination of violence against women (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the murder of Ashling Murphy in January 2022 forced a collective reckoning with violence against women that is anything but random. Over one year on from Ashling’s death and ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we must ask ourselves what has changed for the women of Ireland? According to Women’s Aid, 244 women have di…

22 Nov

2023

EN Speech

The lack of legislative follow-up by the Commission to the PEGA resolution (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner and colleagues, Intellexa is registered in Ireland. This is the company that has been blacklisted by the US Government. The Irish Government says there is no evidence of export and no export certification under the Dual-use Regulation. Yet Intellexa posted revenues of EUR 36 million last year in the Irish Companies Registration Office. Perhaps there is something wrong wi…

22 Nov

2023

EN Speech

30 years of Copenhagen criteria - giving further impetus to EU enlargement policy (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner and colleagues, it hasn’t been mentioned in this debate, but the very first enlargement of the European Union was 50 years ago, in 1973, when Ireland, the UK and Denmark joined the EEC. Had the criteria applied in 1973, there’s no way that Ireland would have been able to join the EEC at that time, not only because of the conflict that was raging on the island of Ireland …

21 Nov

2023

EN Speech

Innovative humanitarian aid strategy: spotlight on current and forgotten crises (short presentation)

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, people often ask about crisis fatigue, and whether we get a little bit tired of the vast number of crises that seem to pile on top of each other, but you never hear anybody asking about trivia fatigue. The New Humanitarian pointed out that 100 times more online articles concerned Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars than was the case of the then-c…

20 Nov

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue published a report today, the third in a series of three reports on disinformation and misinformation in Ireland. This third report focused on narratives. Unsurprisingly, the report concludes that the pandemic supercharged online disinformation and misinformation. The exercise by countries and Member States of extraordinary powers and the rollout …

20 Nov

2023

EN Speech

UN Climate Change Conference 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (COP28) (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, 28 years on from the first Conference of the Parties, some progress has been made. Last week, the OECD noted that developed countries had transferred USD 89 billion to developing countries in climate finance in 2021, and that we are on track to achieve USD 100 billion by the end of this year. Also, we should take some comfort from the unstoppable growt…

20 Nov

2023

EN Speech

Children first - strengthening the Child Guarantee, two years on from its adoption - Reducing inequalities and promoting social inclusion in times of crisis for children and their families (joint debate – International Day of the Rights of the Child)

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Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, on World Children’s Day, I want to focus on two issues. Firstly, foster care is part of the European Child Guarantee and it is, of course, a recommended intervention for the most vulnerable children, preferred over residential care. However, foster care is delivered in a very incoherent way across Member States. There are no common standards for the de…

8 Nov

2023

EN Speech

Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 26-27 October 2023 - Humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the need for a humanitarian pause (joint debate - Conclusions of the European Council and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the need for a humanitarian pause)

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Madam President, I want to repeat my abhorrence at the atrocities committed by Hamas on 7 October, and what has been done since then by the Israeli Defence Forces is not proportionate. I grew up in Ireland; over 30 years of the conflict on the island of Ireland, 3 500 people were killed, each one a tragedy. In one month, 4 000 children have been killed in Palestine. How is that proportionate? Thou…

18 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Outcome of the SDGs Summit (18-19 September 2023, New York) – transformative and accelerated actions leading up to 2030 and beyond (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Presidency, colleagues, in this Parliament, I believe there is a genuine passion for the 2030 Agenda and what it can do for humanity. The SDGs embody the interdependence of nations and represent a towering achievement of diplomacy. The Parliament insisted, in resolutions in 2022 and 2023, that we would have a greater role in consultation with the Commission on implement…

18 Oct

2023

EN Speech

The despicable terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, Israel’s right to defend itself in line with humanitarian and international law and the humanitarian situation in Gaza (debate)

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Mr President, I’d like to begin by condemning the atrocities carried out by Hamas, including the ongoing hostage taking and sheltering military assets at or near key civilian infrastructure. I assert the right of Israel to defend itself, a right based on international law, specifically the UN charter. But that same international law specifically forbids forced population transfer, collective punis…

17 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Situation of Ukrainian women refugees, including access to SRHR support (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Presidency and colleagues, it is a year since the Russian invasion and, according to the OECD, 70% of adult Ukrainian refugees are women, and the war is having a very severe impact, as we know, on women and girls and marginalised populations, particularly in the area of SRHR. The EU has promised to provide refugees from Ukraine with sanctuary and care. This isn’t the ca…

17 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Urgent need for a coordinated European response and legislative framework on intrusive spyware, based on the PEGA inquiry committee recommendations (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Presidency and colleagues, Intellexa is the proprietor of Predator and it is a company that’s registered in Ireland. The Irish Government says it doesn’t have a substantial presence there and there’s nothing to worry about. But it books EUR 30 million in revenue through its Irish accounts and a lot of company formation specialists provide the support for Intellexa to be…

17 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Question Time with Commissioners - European measures to prevent and to fight the rise of organised crime

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Mr President. I am aware of that, but as I mentioned, a number of Member States have already signed bilateral extradition treaties that would have the same anxiety that you’ve just underlined. According to the Belgian Justice Minister, and I quote: ‘if I talk to my colleagues in Italy, Spain, Germany and France, they all have a wish list of the people that are hiding in Dubai, and they are not abl…

17 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Question Time with Commissioners - European measures to prevent and to fight the rise of organised crime

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Mr President, Commissioner, I want to ask a question about the possibility of an EU extradition treaty with the United Arab Emirates. As you know, a number of EU countries have already bilaterally signed extradition treaties with the UAE: Belgium, Netherlands and Denmark. A lot of these countries have in common that many of the leaders of organised crime gangs are currently in Dubai, in the United…

16 Oct

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Madam President, earlier this year, I published a report with Housing Europe. Most people dismiss the significance of the European Union in housing policy, and five years ago, people would have had the same attitude to the European Union in health policy. But all of that has changed. The report showed the many policy and financing levers that are available to the European Union, whether the EIB, E…

16 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Implications of Chinese fishing operations for EU fisheries and the way forward (short presentation)

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Madam President, one of the major problems identified by the Outlaw Ocean Project report is the fact that most major brands rely on ethical trading audits to satisfy themselves that there are no human rights abuses in their supply chain and no environmental damage in their supply chain. But there are major practical difficulties with these audits. How, for example, does an auditor visit a distant …

16 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Fisheries control (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, the Outlaw Ocean Project published the result of a four-year investigation in The New Yorker last week into the Chinese distance fishing fleet. The report found evidence of forced labour in the Chinese seafood processing factories and evidence that this seafood finds its way into European supermarkets. Names that were published in the report include Lidl,…

4 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Need for a speedy adoption of the asylum and migration package (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner Schinas, I was encouraged by your presentation this morning. You were able to document genuine progress and demonstrated real energy to deliver the Pact. I do take issue, however, with the characterisation of the EU-Tunisia partnership, the strategic partnership, as being necessary and workable. We should have known from Libya that efforts to stop human trafficking resul…

3 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Question Time with Commissioners – EU-China trade relations

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Commissioner, I have a question that relates to the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. As you know, European companies are preparing for this directive, especially companies with supply chains in China. Many of these European companies rely on ethical trading audits. These audits are carried out by third-party companies, and many of these companies hire Chinese nationals to carry ou…

14 Sep

2023

EN Speech

Parliamentarism, European citizenship and democracy (debate)

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Mr President, I want to take issue with the assertion of MEP Rangel that there is a link between direct democracy and dictatorship. Ireland is the country with which I’m most familiar, and Ireland has more characteristics of direct democracy than any other EU Member State, I would say. First of all, we have real direct elections with no list system, and therefore no barrier between the voters and …

12 Sep

2023

EN Speech

Ukrainian grain exports after Russia’s exit from the Black Sea Grain Initiative (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, many speakers have rightly focussed on the cynicism and implausibility of Russia’s many statements and actions that have led to the discontinuance of the Black Sea grain initiative. As a member of the Development Committee, I want to focus on the extent to which this initiative was literally a lifeline for many of the 345 million people experiencing hi…

12 Jul

2023

EN Speech

Delivering on the Green Deal: risk of compromising the EU path to the green transition and its international commitments (debate)

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Madam President, it must be very hard to be a conservative during an emergency. The EPP has not really covered itself in glory over the last few weeks, with its very obvious attempts to kill the Nature Restoration Law, with its infantile tweets and intimidation of MEPs. The Parliament sent out a very clear message today, and a very important message, a shot that was heard around the world. The mes…