Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Micheál Martin referred to the deeply corrosive effect of no action being taken in respect of the suspension of parliament in Hungary. I have the same concerns about the suspension of that parliament. What I think is deeply corrosive is the gap between the language used by our leaders in the Government here and their counterparts in Europe and the reality on the ground. This is what is deeply corrosive to the democratic process and I am very concerned about it. Lovely words were used today by the Taoiseach or the incoming Taoiseach – I am not sure which – about Europe. These words included "solidarity" and "equality", and there was mention of the four freedoms. The reality is so removed from this that it beggars belief one would use this language without looking at what is happening in our name in Europe.

While I welcome its belated effort, when this crisis originally broke the EU failed to mount a collective humanitarian response and has struggled for months to put together a package. It blatantly ignored the relevant article in the Lisbon treaty that spoke about acting collectively if a country came under threat from a natural disaster or other type of problem. The EU is founded on cross-border freedom and mutual solidarity but several countries, including Austria and Germany, unilaterally moved to close their borders. Of course, Ireland did not close its border. Italy, which has suffered tremendously, invoked the disaster fund, which is meant to facilitate the sharing of vital medicinal supplies between members, but not a single European country responded to Italy's call to activate the fund. It was not until weeks later that the EU approved a €50 million package to Italy to help produce ventilators and personal protective equipment. If I have an opportunity I will return to this point.

Most EU nations imposed export restrictions on medical supplies. That was some solidarity. Germany blocked shipments of 240,000 masks to Austria. The French authorities commandeered the distribution of 6 million masks from Swedish companies that were already contracted to other countries. The people who were most down did not rely on the ever-increasing closer union. A team of Chinese health experts arrived on 13 March to help Italy. Russia sent help. Cuba, which has been subjected to more and more restrictions through the US embargo, about which Europe says nothing, sent doctors. Criticism of the treatment of Italy came from the European Commission President, who said a heartfelt apology was owed to Europe. The question must be asked as to whether the EU finally mobilised because of shame with regard to action taken by China, Russia and Cuba.

On the Greek islands, 42,000 asylum seekers are trapped in five hotspots but nobody has mentioned them today. Not a single one of our esteemed leaders of the bigger parties mentioned this situation. There is capacity for only 6,000 people. On Lesbos, there are 20,000 people in a camp. These figures come from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. Our fundamental rights are absolutely being affected by the measures taken.

On Lesbos, there are 20,000 people in a camp built for 2,840 while on Samos there are 6,000 people living in a centre for 650 people, and so on. There has been no action by Europe on Palestine and the serious situation for those who have been placed under a blockade by the Israelis. There are many other examples.

In my final minute, I want to go back again to language. We have used the language of war to deal with this virus. Indeed, the Minister, Deputy Harris, has repeatedly used the language of war and has used personal words in respect of the virus, saying it is vicious, nasty, not nice, horrible. What is not nice is our reaction to dealing with it in a prepared way. What is nasty is our failure to have our health service in a position to deal with the virus. Europe is behind that because, following Europe's directions, we ran down our health service for a very long time and we built up our military capacity. If we are serious about a new world, about learning something and not going back to the type of unsustainable development that we had, in every sense of the word, then the first thing for the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, to do is make a statement here today on our military budget to Europe. She should make a statement on stopping our payments under Permanent Structured Cooperation on Security and Defence, PESCO, and should state that we will withdraw from PESCO. If we are seriously interested in humanitarian help, then let us look at what is going into a military budget in the guise of pretending that we are defending each other. When the test came and we had to defend our countries against the so-called nasty, vicious virus, we utterly failed to do so as Europeans.

See this speech in context