Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I begin by welcoming the Georgian ambassador, Mr. George Zurabashvili, to the Chamber. His presence is very welcome. Our last pre-European Council statements coincided with the restrictions based on Georgia's accession to the European Union, following the advanced status given to Ukraine and Moldova. In that time, 12 recommendations were attached to Georgia's candidacy. It is very welcome that the Parliament of Georgia has established nine different working groups to advance those aims.

There is an onus Ireland, as a country of a similar size, to extend the hand of friendship to Georgia. The candidacy of Moldova and Ukraine will now be fast-tracked and, like Georgia, they also share a border with Russia. Georgia has been occupied since 2008. We cannot forget the Georgian people and their cause and I know we will not do so in this Chamber.

These statements coincide with a period in which winter is descending upon us, as it is throughout Europe. With homes becoming cold, people fear they will be unable to use their lights or heat their homes. For the one in six people in Ireland experiencing poverty, the Government measures announced in the budget will keep the lights on for a while but rising costs mean that may not be the case for the whole winter.

If the European Union is to mean anything - as a proud European, I believe it means a hell of a lot to us in Ireland - it has to stand up for people, especially in times of crisis. We cannot simply say that rising energy costs or Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine will mean that homes throughout Ireland may go cold this winter. The European Union has to stand for far more than that.

The greatest threat I see to the European Union is that of poverty and the poverty being experienced by the citizens within the Union who are not feeling the warmth of European Union membership. We saw that in the case of Brexit when the communities in the UK that were suffering most at the coalface of poverty voted to leave the European Union.

The last year of discussions on the European Union have rightly focused on Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Within the European Union, people are not only at risk of poverty but are experiencing hunger, malnutrition and inability to access heat in some cases. My Green Party colleague, Deputy Leddin, highlighted that Germany was previously dependent on Russian gas for 70% of its energy needs. Does that not encapsulate the problem when a leading EU member state is so closely tied to the Russian Federation? If European Council meetings are to mean anything, they should be about how we move away from that as fast as possible and disentangle ourselves forever more from fossil fuel dependency.

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