Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The social contract is a basic underpinning of our society, along with the hope and expectation that things will get better, that the lives we leave to our children will be better than the ones we have, and that the freedoms and qualities of life that we enjoy are going to be expanded and improved upon. How terrifying it must be to live in a time and in a country where that contract is broken, where there is an erosion of those liberties, and where one observes things going from bad to worse. It might be somewhat grandiose, but one thinks of the fall of Rome or 1930s Germany.

I worry when I look at the extraordinary temperatures we are seeing in Canada and across Siberia. I worry about my children's future when it comes to climate breakdown.

In the context of these post-European Council meeting statements, I look at the erosion of civil liberties in some of our EU counterpart countries. I echo many of the previous contributions, and Deputy Howlin's comments in particular, when reflecting on the unfolding situation in Hungary and the need to call out Prime Minister Orbán and his unabated erosion of human rights and freedoms in his country. This is not a recent thing. This is the latest move by an Orbán-led Government, but it builds on years of regressive policy and positioning. While it is not hugely surprising, it is still deeply shocking to see this happen within a European context where we have come to take these liberties for granted. The direction of travel was quite clear and quite worrying from the outset. In 2010, the party introduced a new legal framework that effectively weakened legal checks on its authority, interfered with media freedoms and undermined human rights protections in that country. In 2013, the Hungarian Government introduced provisions into its constitution that enabled the criminalising of homelessness and restricted the definition of the family. In 2017, it adopted legislation that forced NGOs to identify themselves as foreign-funded if they receive finances equivalent to €21,650 per year. This move was a direct attack on democratic process in respect of which the NGOs play an invaluable role. In early 2020, when Europe first faced the Covid-19 pandemic, Orbán's Government gave him and his executive branch extraordinary powers to suspend certain laws and implement others by decree for as long as the emergency continues, completely sidestepping a parliamentary process. These examples are just a snapshot of a steady but hugely damaging impact on the part of the Orbán Government and the wider effect this is having on Hungary.

It was very welcome indeed to see the strong reaction of EU member states at the weekend, and especially the intervention of the Dutch Prime Minister. After ten years of democratic erosion by an EU member state, however, it is time to go beyond a status quoresponse. Recommendations are important but actions are what will lead to the necessary reversal and prevention of these discriminatory moves by an EU member state Government. At last December's Council meeting, EU leaders struck an agreement on the rule of law. The latter is an important step towards the protection of the rule of law and towards ensuring EU funds are not wrongly spent by those who attack the rule of law and fundamental rights. In applying this new mechanism, the EU and its institutions also have a duty to protect the rights of final recipients and beneficiaries who are not responsible for rule-of-law violations.

We can fall into the trap of saying that sometimes governments take actions that are in no way representative of their people. I would prefer to believe this to be the case, but a 2019 Eurobarometer poll found that 53% of Hungarians disagreed with the statement that there is nothing wrong in a sexual relationship between two persons of the same sex. I do not believe that we in Ireland are immune to the same trend, and the trend towards populism. We must be alive to it and aware of it. All across the European context and in our own patch we must defend against it. We must defend an independent media. We have to very much encourage people to engage with that independent media to make themselves well informed and to resource themselves adequately to be able to participate fully in the democracy we are so lucky to live in.

If this is indeed part of a bigger picture within the EU, then the EU needs to face up to and address the disquiet among people of its member states, including what it is that causes the views to shift in a direction that undermines human rights and, to revert back to my opening, to have a look at that social contract. We have seen this play out in western democracies, and not just in the EU. It is happening across the Atlantic too, where people's feelings of disenfranchisement have led to a situation where they have voted in particular directions that may not be the best for our democratic institutions.

As country, Ireland has made significant progressive change over the past 30 or 40 years. We absolutely should not take that for granted but with this in mind Ireland should very much work with its EU counterparts in helping to understand the origins of regressive policies.

As I have a few unexpected minutes remaining, I will pick up on the situation in Syria, which was in the initial speech laid out by the Minister of State. The humanitarian situation we see unfolding in Lebanon and Turkey is very worrying. We must make sure that we in Ireland live up to our obligations and our commitments. We have a long history, which is often referenced, and we know what it is like for large numbers of people to have to leave their home place, and how important it is that they get a reception and opportunities in the countries to which they depart.

To pick up on the issue of international vaccination, I also support the calls for a TRIPS waiver. I do not think it is a silver bullet and I am on the record of the Dáil as saying this. It is one part of the puzzle. Donations of excess vaccines from the EU will play an increasingly important part, as well as donations. I do not think there is another way around scaling up the type of production we need to see in the vaccination process. It needs to be massive. As Deputy Cairns said, I would very much like to approach it from a moral standpoint but there absolutely is a case to be made in terms of self-interest. In this case, nobody is safe until everybody is safe. The best way to end the Covid pandemic as it exists throughout the world is to end it everywhere in a timely fashion, and to prevent vaccine escape, which is what we are all very worried about, and we see elements of it in the Delta variant as we know it somewhat bypasses the first dose of AstraZeneca. We need to massively ramp up the vaccination programme not just in the developed world but in the developing world also. There is a strong case to be made in this regard for the TRIPS waiver. With regard to building this into WHO rules, if not now, when? This is a question I will leave with the Minister of State.

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