Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am also glad to be able to speak on this. As usual, the Taoiseach does not wait around for us to make our views known. The Minister of State, Deputy Byrne is here and I have no issue with that, but I repeat what I have said before: they are both completely gobsmacked by the EU. They are serving the global masters instead of serving the people who elected them. In the Minister of State's case it is the people of Meath East. The people will have their say when the next election comes. The Taoiseach will probably head off to Europe and leave the Minister of State behind.

One good thing to come out before COP – I said it is cop-on we should have, not COP – was the 2022/1854 directive. It is in place more a month, yet we still have not put manners on the ESB and other companies that buy on the market to ensure wind energy is not charged the same as fossil fuels. The genie is out of the bottle. You cannot be codding the people. The Government must do something meaningful to look after our people. Look at all the businesses that Deputy Murnane O’Connor mentioned. We all have those businesses and those sad stories.

There is a fundamentally flawed policy of being wedded to the EU no matter what it does. I for one do not support the same thing as Deputy Richmond and others that we would train Ukrainians and others to clear landmines. Our Army is a peacekeeper and has been recognised all over the world. We already gave the Ukrainians €10 million for uniforms and for hats. Are we neutral or are we not? We know the Taoiseach does not respect neutrality and he thinks it is out of date and out of fashion. He wants to be one of the global leaders. We are a dot here. When Europe tries to help us with something, other countries take it up but we are last to implement it because we must serve the global masters. We must serve the big oil companies and the big international companies, all the REITs and housing companies and all the international data centres. It is time Fianna Fáil went back to its roots where it was founded and have some understanding of and empathy for the people and serve them. We can play our part as a proud nation of the world with the United Nations and not be a lackey for the European leaders and for globalists. It is shameful. The Minister of State can look at his book or whatever he is looking at. He will not look me in the face here because he cannot look me in the face because he knows it is true what I am saying. It is shameful. It is wrong. It is despicable. We gave €10 million towards the damage and liability fund. We are being made to pay up for everything while we see Germany and other places stripping out coalmines at the moment. The ESB told us last week it imported 250,000 tonnes of coal in one shipload but the ordinary people cannot burn a sod of turf. The people are sick, sore, sorry and tired of the Government’s semantics and of its globalism and lack of representation.

See this speech in context