Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)

In 1954. I acknowledge the extent to which European Movement Ireland informs, engages with and empowers Irish citizens and thank it for that.

The headline figures indicate there is still robust support for membership, notwithstanding that it is down from a high of 93% in 2019. I have always been on record as having said we cannot take that support for granted. When we dig deeper, we note there is a real call for action. We have strength through membership but there are what I would call significant directional doubts. Our membership of the European Union is not in question but policy direction, public trust and vision need significant strengthening.

One thing that jumped out for me was the extent to which the digital and green transitions do not comprise a primary concern. It is not so long ago that we had NextGenerationEU. Extraordinary amounts of money were set aside for both the digital and green transitions. I do not know whether the thinking is that we have made progress on the acceleration of the digital agenda and that climate is a blind spot because of the economic realities. I have a couple of questions on this and I want to give our guests time to answer. How can we deal with such directional doubt? I do not know whether the next MMF is crucial, particularly in terms of the current emphasis on strengthening the fence across the European Union. There is definitely split opinion in the context of defence.