John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----but that is just not happening. Government inertia in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis is also highlighted by the fact that Ireland has yet to receive a single euro from our €990 million share of the EU's recovery and resilience fund. That recovery plan was agreed nine months ago. This month Italy and Greece received allocations from the fund, but Ireland lags behind in drawing down our share. That is unacceptable, given that a large part of Ireland's plan is focused on bringing about the green revolution we need. Plans to extend a schools broadband programme and health projects are also dependent on this funding being drawn down.

It is time for the Government to get its act together and start drawing down this funding to which we are entitled.

Fifty years ago, Ireland voted to join the EU. Today we can be to the fore in changing Europe. There has never been a better time. Across member states, more and more people are turning to the advancement of the collective public good over private interests. In the midst of the turbulence created by the crisis we now face, there is a real chance to shape a future built on the shared European values of solidarity, equality, human dignity and democracy. As the desire for a fairer, more democratic society grows stronger, our focus must not be on making Europe more insular, militarised or disconnected from citizens. There is an historic chance to build a social Europe in which ordinary people come together and come first. European can and must be a Europe of peace and social and economic justice, a haven for diversity and a bastion of human rights and internationalism. Austerity, neoliberalism and militarisation have failed and now, as a community of nations, we have to get the basics right. This means working together to ensure our people have affordable housing and access to world-class public healthcare and education - the foundations of a good life where every person has the opportunity to reach his or her full potential. There are those who use the crisis we now endure as alibis to do the opposite - to retreat into narrow thinking and block progress. They say we must cut our way out of economic difficulty and working people must pay a heavy price. They say we must arm our way out of military conflict and Ireland should surrender its neutrality. They are wrong. Ireland's future in Europe is too big and too bright for such a retreat.

Now is a time for a vision of Ireland as a European leader of prosperity, peace and hope. We have an opportunity to lead towards a greener cleaner world to protect our children's futures by protecting the environment through ambitious and fair change. Ireland can lead the way by becoming an international hub of clean energy through the development of our wind energy and renewable resources. It can be done. We only have to show the determination and ambition to get it done. By showing leadership now, we can carve out a legacy to leave the generations that will follow us a just, green and clean environment.

The signing of the Schuman Declaration and the fall of the Berlin Wall mark milestones of change for Europe. We stand at another watershed. Nowhere in Europe are the winds of change blowing more strongly than here in Ireland. This is a truth underscored by the historical election result in the North. The tectonic plates of Irish politics have shifted immeasurably. We all have a responsibility to prepare for the future. I see that future as a united Ireland, not only in the European Union but driving change within Europe. We need an inclusive citizens' assembly to plan reunification and prepare for a referendum, a forum for everyone in which our unionist citizens and new communities can voice their opinions and views in a spirit of goodwill and progress.

In making a peaceful and successful transition to unity we will, once again, look to the support of our European partners, the same positive and energetic support they showed for the Good Friday Agreement and in securing and defending the protocol. Just as both Governments should prepare for unity, the European Union must also ready itself for the day Ireland joins as a united nation. The reunification of Ireland can be a catalyst for real change, not only at home but right across the EU.

We have a real choice. The future of Europe can be one of reactionary retreat or one of ambitious progress, a future of citizen disillusionment or a future of citizen empowerment, a future of continued privilege for the few or one of opportunity and prosperity for all. Now is the time not to hold anxious to the past but to reach forward with confidence. If we act together with common purpose, we can build a new Ireland and revive the vision of Europe as a beacon of partnership, solidarity and equality, a changed Europe from which a changed and united Ireland finally takes its rightful place among the nations of the world.

See this speech in context