Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the witnesses to the meeting. We certainly have a critical history in common insofar as Ireland was also a colonised country. I thank the witnesses for the kind words about Ireland and whatever help we have been on the international stage.

Palestine is a defining political issue for us in the EU. Palestine is very close to our hearts and I am wearing my Palestinian Ireland flag today. I wear it every chance I get. I thank in particular South Africa for the work it has done at the International Court of Justice. I thank it for the courage and wisdom it has shown. We were very proud to see Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh who is involved in that case and in the events at the court yesterday. We would like to see justice being delivered at some stage.

It is amazing for us as a European country, a member of the EU, that it took a country on the other side of the world to stand up and take that first move in getting some justice for Palestine and bringing the perpetrators of those war crimes to justice. I thank the witnesses for that. I accept all their words about how important Gaza is. I extend my solidarity to the people of Sudan and it is horrendous that 9 million people have been displaced. As was said, the solution has to come from Sudan and my good wishes and my solidarity to our guest in that regard.

Our colonial past is very much part of our present. We carry it in ourselves, in our memory and in our trauma. My first question is, I suppose, philosophical. How are the young people in the witnesses' respective countries working that out and working through that in terms of art, literature, popular culture and politics? Do they have much interest in politics? Are there new businesses, innovation, that kind of thing. It is important to look to the future as well.