Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis na finnéithe. We are serious about Ireland's support for accession. We have all seen the benefits that the European Union has provided in this State, even in the positive role it has played in our peace process. We can all accept that in the changed world we are in the European Union, on some level, is the body that represents hope and democracy, while stating that it would still have its issues. If we also want the European Union to be a bastion for rights and democracy we also have to ensure - and this is down to domestic Governments - that we deal with the issues of poverty that we all have. When you can offer people a better life, you can then protect against what people might term as the sort of politics that is espoused by the likes of Marine Le Pen and others throughout Europe.

The worlds has completely changed in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Initially, we had a number of meetings with representatives of the Ukrainians, Moldovans and Georgians. Delegations and individuals visited all three countries as a follow-up. The chargé d'affaires of North Macedonia was before the committee also, and we will have further meetings with representatives from Montenegro and Serbia. There are other interactions, whether it is at the level of the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union, COSAC, or anything else. We have found that there are those in the western Balkans who believe they were hard done by in the sense that there was an awful lot of talk about accession but that there was no real movement towards it. People would put it that there were rule-of-law issues within the European Union and that there was an element within the European Union that had basically decided we would get our house in order and not look at anybody else until that was dealt with, which was unfair. The positive points I have heard from the witnesses is that with all the caveats and the wrong roads that have been taken, there is now a route marked through. It is necessary that the European Union sets a high bar for the issues with the judiciary, corruption and anything else because we all want to live in a better Europe. Those are necessary conditions to facilitate that

The witnesses have already gone into some of the questions I intended to go into. As has been stated, we are living in a different world. The witnesses both spoke about the tools that are available to other players. We are in the age of asymmetrical warfare, including hybrid and cyberwarfare. There was mention of Albania's relationship with Iran but I would like to get into a bit more detail on the Russian and Chinese plays. I understand that China will be putting a significant amount of money into infrastructure in countries across the entire Balkan area, even into some countries that are within the European Union. Some of that may be positive on some level, but I ask for a little detail on it.