Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First of all, I would like to welcome the former Senator, Colm O'Gorman as well as his colleague, Ms Iverna McGowan. I served with Mr. O'Gorman for a short time in the Seanad. It was a short time as far as he was concerned, although I have been there somewhat longer. He played a very good role in the Seanad in that period and I am sorry that he did not continue. I congratulate him on his appointment with Amnesty International. The organisation made a very good choice.

Mr. O'Gorman referred in particular to the plight of the 10 million or 12 million Roma people. Our former committee Chairman, Deputy Bernard Durkan, commissioned a report of which I was the rapporteur. The report was accepted by the Chairman and adopted by the committee, but I got all the abuse. I never got more abuse for adopting any report before in my life. The amount of e-mails I received was absolutely unbelievable, not one of which was positive. I was even banned from a local pub not too far away from where I live, because I mentioned the Roma and there had been an alleged robbery in a particular location.

The Roma do not do much for themselves, quite frankly. Let us be honest, they do not have a good reputation. They will have to get their own act together and there needs to be a bit more leadership within the Roma community. I know a lot about them since I undertook work on that report. They are certainly the most oppressed people in Europe, if not in the world. Their numbers are enormous and they are an Indian race, not Romanians. The Romanians are blamed because people equate Roma with Romanians. I wish Mr. O'Gorman well in his work in that regard but, nevertheless, there is enormous discrimination against the Roma. Each country has to take action to try to assist them to integrate. Education is particularly important in this regard. Some countries in Europe are very negative towards the Roma.

I also noted the good point on post-accession monitoring. In the Council of Europe we have decided to monitor Hungary, which I have voted for, because Hungary has taken particular actions concerning the constitution. We decided that we would monitor Hungary even though it is well regarded and part of the EU and the Council of Europe. I wanted to make that point to members who are going to Europe that there should be a form of post-membership monitoring. Therefore when a country joins the EU, we should not ignore everything it does. A monitoring group needs to go out there to see that it complies with the highest standards of the European Union.