Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----for the €120 billion worth of fish we gave the EU and allowed its members to take out of our waters before the year 2000. In that same period, we received €45 billion in CAP payments, Structural Funds and every other kind of fund from Europe. Even at that time, in 2000, the deficit was €75 billion in our favour, and that figure has only grown in recent years. It is vital to remember that.

We have talked about how great Europe is and how it has delivered peace across the world. The asylum and migration policies of the EU have enabled and indirectly contributed to the deaths of untold numbers of people, including children and babies, in the seas around Europe. There is, for example, an ongoing humanitarian crisis in a camp in Lesbos where there are more than 7,000 people seeking asylum, over 2,000 of whom are children. The camp has just 350 toilets and 36 shower cabins. People are dying when they come to Europe because Europe has facilitated the devastation of African countries. We talk about peace. EU representatives are currently in Mali, bringing so-called peace to the country. They will be in Mozambique soon. We will be going there to facilitate the colonial ambitions of Portugal, France and countries like them to ensure they get their cut out of Africa.

It is vital that Europe stands up for the Palestinian people and clarifies what relationship Israel has with the European Union. That would help to move the issue along the road.

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