What Barry spoke about.

12 Jul

2023

EN Speech

The need for EU action on search and rescue in the Mediterranean (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, some of this debate has been about the secondary consequences of saving lives at sea, that it will encourage and somehow support the business model of human trafficking. But certain things are so intrinsically right, like saving lives at sea, that secondary consequences should be disregarded. The consequences of not having EU—led search and rescue is an i…

11 Jul

2023

EN Speech

COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned and recommendations for the future (debate)

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Mr President, I worked on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, and sadly, many of the lessons of that outbreak have not been learned and not implemented. Firstly, the main lesson was the need to strengthen the health systems of developing countries. And yet today, Sierra Leone, the centre of the outbreak, has merely 8 doctors per 100 000 population. That’s compared to 400 in my country. The …

14 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Implementation and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, no one disagrees with the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals. They represent an idyllic, almost utopian vision for the future where economic, environmental and social priorities are on an equal footing. You’ll find the SDGs littered throughout countless EU policy documents and Parliament resolutions. But how many of us here are actually willi…

14 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware - Investigation of the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (draft recommendation) (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner and colleagues, I would like to congratulate the rapporteur for the extremely thorough work done on revealing the extent and methods of the use of commercial spyware. The report concludes that many of these companies are registered in Ireland, without any substantial presence, such as office space or employees. One such spyware company is registered to a company formatio…

13 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Artificial Intelligence Act (debate)

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Madam President, I'm fundamentally opposed to the use of AI systems and remote biometric facial recognition. In mass surveillance, there have already been too many cases of mistaken identity, there have already been too many cases of abuses of the system to surrender the right of privacy to a technology that is developing and evolving as fast as this. AI's potential for positive transformation is …

13 Jun

2023

EN Speech

Humanitarian and environmental consequences of the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam - Sustainable reconstruction and integration of Ukraine into the Euro-Atlantic community (debate)

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Mr President, Vice President, colleagues, I want to focus on the aspect of this debate, which is around the humanitarian response, because one of the issues that we have consistently got wrong in the overall humanitarian response is the failure to directly fund local Ukrainian humanitarian organisations. Less than 10 % of all humanitarian funding has gone directly to Ukrainian humanitarian organis…

31 May

2023

EN Speech

Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (debate)

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Mr President, dear colleagues, all companies carry out due diligence on their supply chains, but only insofar as it impacts the operations of their own company. What makes this proposal radical is that, for the first time, companies will be mandated to carry out due diligence on their supply chain as it affects the planet, as it affects human rights abuses. This has been an extremely divisive text…

31 May

2023

EN Speech

10 year anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh (statement by the President)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, recently we marked the 10—year anniversary of the deadliest industrial accident in the modern era. These were 1 134 avoidable deaths, and the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh sparked an international outrage and a litany of promises by major brands to clean up their supply chains. This tragedy should have been a wake—up call for citizens, governments and companies…

10 May

2023

EN Speech

Ukrainian cereals on the European market (debate)

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Madam President, I wish to intervene as a member of the Development Committee of the Parliament and passing references have been made by previous speakers about the implications of this issue for our development partners. And I think it’s important, therefore, that we spell it out: developing countries are suffering food price inflation to a very great degree, and it has to be said that lives are …

10 May

2023

EN Speech

Externalising asylum applications and making funding to third countries conditional on the implementation of return agreements (topical debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, the offer of EU development funding in return for cooperation on returns and readmissions is based on a myth. A myth that such funding can tackle the root causes of migration. The evidence shows that such interventions actually increase irregular population movements in the short term. Why is it controversial to come in here to this hemicycle and insist t…

9 May

2023

EN Speech

Situation in Sudan (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner and colleagues, first of all, I think we need to be careful in our funding, both the EU and the Member States, that we focus on localisation. There are existing voluntary groups in Khartoum and throughout Sudan, such as resistance committees and established service committees, which are doing extraordinarily well in very, very difficult circumstances, and I think we n…

19 Apr

2023

EN Speech

Children forcibly deported from Ukraine and the ICC arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin (debate)

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Mr President, this month, the Russian Federation has the presidency of the United Nations Security Council. The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It is surely an extraordinary indictment of the UN that its main body, the Security Council, charged with this cherished objective, is led by an alleged war criminal. That is why the ICC …

18 Apr

2023

EN Speech

EU Rapid Deployment Capacity, EU Battlegroups and Article 44 TEU: the way forward (debate)

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Madam President, my own country is one of a diminishing number of EU Member States that are non-aligned, and this is a popular position. However, we’re not ignorant of the vast challenges that the European Union faces, and indeed the Irish Government will host a consultative forum on Ireland’s international security policy. Bearing in mind cyber threats to Ireland, we host 40% of EU data in Irelan…

18 Apr

2023

EN Speech

EU relations with Iraq (debate)

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Madam President, like a number of colleagues here in the hemicycle, I was a Member of the European Parliament delegation to the EU Election Observation Mission in Iraq in 2021. And while it is true that the roots of democracy in Iraq are shallow, they are certainly growing. There was a very low turnout, which showed the high level of frustration among the young people, especially those that protes…

18 Apr

2023

EN Speech

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

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Mr President, Commissioner, minister and colleagues, one of the central arguments that is ventilated by the far right is that NGO boats create a pull factor. So these debates can be very ideological and they can be very partisan. So let’s look at the facts. Researchers in the European University Institute in Florence in Italy looked at data going back to 2014 to examine this very question, and the…

17 Apr

2023

EN Speech

Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System - Monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transport - Carbon border adjustment mechanism - Social Climate Fund - Revision of the EU Emissions Trading System for aviation (debate)

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Mr President, like everybody else, I very much welcome the Fit for 55 package. It truly demonstrates the way in which the European institutions have listened to the voices of its citizens as expressed in the ballot box in the European Parliament elections in 2019. The people wanted ambition, they wanted verifiable targets and they wanted accountability. And that has been delivered. While the prima…

29 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Formal sitting - Ceremony on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement

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President Metsola, President Michel, President von der Leyen and colleagues, today’s ceremony is very, very welcome. Sometimes we under-sell the EU’s role in sustaining peace in Northern Ireland – a role I would argue is even more significant than that of the United States. The peace in Northern Ireland is, in my view, one of the European Union’s greatest achievements. It was the EU that provided …

15 Mar

2023

GA Speech

Cross-border adoptions from third countries (debate)

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Mr President, I would like to thank the Commission for organising this debate. This is an important matter. When I had the role of Minister for Children in the Irish government, I spent a lot of time on this topic. In 2010, on behalf of the Irish Government, I converted the Hague Convention into Irish law. A lot of people were happy when this happened. According to many families, adoption was an i…

14 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Implementation report on the Agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU - The Windsor Framework (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues. First of all, congratulations to Commissioner Šefčovič and his team and to all of the interlocutors on achieving the Windsor Framework. It’s a great breakthrough. I think the next stage is patience, unfortunately, and more patience. We’ve demonstrated – well, you’ve demonstrated – towering patience, I have to say, in the face of very difficult interlocutors …

14 Mar

2023

EN Speech

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

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Mr President, Mr Borrell, the override clause would degrade any claim Israel might have on being a liberal democracy. I applaud the people of Israel for calling out this legislation, but the new government has asserted Jewish people’s ‘exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the land of Israel’. And vandalising the delicately constructed separation of powers is a precondition for expansion…

13 Mar

2023

EN Speech

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

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Mr President, I’m proud to say that on 8 March the Irish Government confirmed that a referendum on gender equality will be held in November this year. This announcement follows the recommendations made by the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality – an excellent example of participative democracy. The proposals will be to amend the Constitution on gender equality, the definition of family and the ‘…

13 Mar

2023

EN Speech

Policy Coherence for Development (short presentation)

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Mr President, policy coherence for development is the concept that binds the Sustainable Development Goals to other EU policies, and it is wonderful that Team Europe contributes 43% of all overseas aid globally. But do other policies throw a hammer into delicately constructed development gains in our partner countries? If we ignore the transformational benefits of migration by building barriers to…

16 Feb

2023

EN Speech

An EU strategy to boost industrial competitiveness, trade and quality jobs (B9-0085/2023, B9-0086/2023, B9-0087/2023, B9-0088/2023, B9-0089/2023, B9-0090/2023, B9-0091/2023, B9-0104/2023, B9-0105/2023, RC-B9-0107/2023, B9-0107/2023, B9-0108/2023, B9-0110/2023, B9-0111/2023, B9-0115/2023) (vote)

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Madam President, if I can raise a matter of great importance, my voting terminal isn’t working. So if you would have a technician. Sorry to interrupt.

15 Feb

2023

EN Speech

Access to strategic critical raw materials (debate)

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Madam President, since this issue became more prominent a few years back, a number of things have changed, quite rightly. The green and digital transition has become central to European policy, but also the geopolitical situation has become starkly more challenging, as many speakers have referred to, our Russia dependence, our China dependence ... So this is not just a moving target, but also a ta…

15 Feb

2023

EN Speech

EUCO conclusions: the need for the speedy finalisation of the Road Map (debate)

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Madam President, I am a member of the Development Committee here in the European Parliament, and I want to recall Article 208 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which states that the primary objective of our development cooperation policy is the eradication of poverty. The Council conclusions make reference to the use of NDICI—Global Europe funding for migration purposes. It i…