Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My colleague used the word "normalise". If we are seriously interested in bringing peace to the world, the best way to ensure we do not have war would be for the Council to put on its agenda the 17 sustainable developments goals, including, zero hunger, no poverty, quality education, affordable and clean energy, water, and others. I do not have the time to read them. If that was on any Council agenda, I would rejoice and say we were beginning to make progress and we were seriously interested in a Europe that is humane and not interested in building up its own borders. However, what we are getting is fortress Europe, as the Minister of State and I know. Language is just being used to confuse and hide that.

On a day 39 people, including one child, were found dead in a container, it is time to reflect on our policy as part of Europe. I will refer to the number of deaths per year. In 2014, a total of 3,162 people drowned in the Mediterranean Sea simply looking for a better life. In 2015 it was 3,522. In 2016 it was 3,780. In 2017, a total of 2,843 people drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. Last year 1,971 people drowned and so far this year 1,078 people have died. The only positive is that the numbers have reduced.

However, it must be remembered that while we are going off to the Mediterranean to take in the sun, people are drowning in that supposedly blue sea. The numbers have reduced because of the policies we have pursued by paying Turkey €5 billion or €6 billion to take in refugees, while at the same time the Council meeting the Taoiseach attended condemned Turkey's unilateral military action in north east Syria. It also condemned Turkey's illegal drilling activities in Cyprus's exclusive economic zone. Although the EU condemns Turkey, it continues to do business with it. We have allowed Turkey a free hand with the Kurds, as my colleagues said.

What does language mean at the end of the day? As a female politician and a human being, I want to focus on the people who are losing their lives directly because to the policies being implemented in our name. My colleague mentioned militarisation. Without doubt the militarisation of Europe is going fully ahead in the guise of beautiful language: protecting our borders and protecting our way of life as if our way of life was in any way more important than the way of life of those people who have been driven from their homes by wars in which we are complicit. An airport in this country is being used in those wars in which people are condemned to death or forced to leave their countries and drown on route. Those are the policies being pursued in our name. When the Taoiseach comes back and we have an opportunity to look at this, we have a duty to stand up and say, "Please do not do this in our name. Please begin to look at what is happening."

The EU has become a champion of the military industry. We are committed to increasing substantially our defence budgets. Our neutral country of approximately 5 million people is going to increase its military and defence budget at a time 10,500 people are homeless and all the other problems Deputies outline repeatedly in the House. Just 10% of global military spending would be enough to provide free equitable quality education as per the fourth sustainable development goal. Eradicating poverty, the second sustainable goal, and the third could be accomplished with just another 10% of the military budget. All of the sustainable development goals could be met with just under half of the world's military budget.

This neutral country does not look at these figures and say that it should not happen in our name. Instead, we go across to a Council meeting and we are happy with a page like the one I am holding, which makes a nonsense of the English language, turns it on its head and makes us immune to the deaths in the Mediterranean Sea. As the number of deaths in the sea thankfully decreases, clearly the numbers are increasing in containers Greece or in the other places where there are camps, yet we are paying €5 billion or €6 billion to other people to deal with the problems our policy has created. The Minister of State and the Taoiseach are not doing it in my name.

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