Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the witnesses for coming in yet again and sharing this research with us. It is a very timely piece of work given, as was mentioned, we are on the eve of the European Parliament elections. There is no doubt it has caught some trends which need further analysis by us and others. Several people have mentioned the 88% who say it is important to vote, and we know that is not going to happen, although we hope it does. Local elections are taking place on the same day, as we know. It is encouraging to see some of the European issues being debated actively at this time, in particular on security and defence and migration, among others. Again, this research is timely in that regard. An overall message, however, must be that the European Union needs to communicate its message better to citizens, given the overall findings of the research. Our secretariat has summarised the entire poll findings as indicating a general trend of declining confidence in the direction of the European Union, its response to international conflict and its management of the migrant crisis. It also states the findings indicate increasing support for EU-related security and co-operation. That is a good summary of the findings.

A lot of questions have been asked already. I want to take up two. On the EU international response, we all agree that the 19% satisfaction rating relating to the Israel-Gaza conflict is not surprising. The 33% rating regarding Ukraine, however, is surprising. The EU has been totally unified on that and has been very clear on what it wants to do, but only 33% are satisfied. Could there be something else going on there relating to fatigue with the Ukraine crisis? Could it also relate to the Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection, that there is a bit of weariness arising form that? Regardless, it is surprising. That is the point I am making.

The second point relates to the discussion of the emboldened far right in a range of countries which have been listed in the research. There is also reference to populism in the contribution.

Taking the research as a whole, does Ms O'Connell find any evidence of an emboldened far right here? I guess we will know soon enough on 8 June but so far in this research, did Ms O'Connell see any evidence that these European trends are manifesting themselves here?