Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ar mo shon féin agus mo chairde sa Ghrúpa Réigiúnach, cuirim fáilte roimh an Uachtarán. Tá súil againn go mbeidh an t-am a chaitheann sí anseo ina chabhair agus ina ábhar eolais di. Tá súil againn freisin go mbainfidh sí taitneamh as a cuairt go hÉirinn inniu. It is a remarkable feature of our politics that I have the opportunity to address the President of the EU Parliament on the occasion of Ireland's 50th year at the heart of the European project. Three years ago, I entered politics principally out of frustration at the lack of a 24-7 emergency cardiac service for County Waterford and, more generally, unequal access to healthcare and education in the region. Everyone in the room will appreciate how swiftly I worked in my parish concerns there.

The warm welcome offered to the president today needs to be compared to the contested ground of the céad míle fáilte that Ireland currently musters for refugees. Irish people know that migration is a long term and often forever entanglement. The kindness and decency of the welcome matters. There can be no second-class citizens in a republic, even in our flawed Republic. Yet, we are now at risk of emulating the cold house of our English neighbours offered to Irish labourers in the 1950s, or the sentiment there delivering unconscionable treatment to the Windrush generation, in addition to their explicitly hostile environment for migrants.

Irish people value a warm welcome but the ability of our politics and that of the EU to deliver one is now an open question. Ireland can certainly afford a dignified reception. This week's GDP numbers show that the calibre of the welcome relates to the Government's capability rather than resources. The EU can also afford a warm house and a warm welcome. Ms Metsola, in her address on her election as president, affirmed a commitment to European values of dignity, solidarity and fundamental rights. Will our politics and governance allow us to live these values? Are we capable of ensuring that no more people meet the same fate as Alan Kurdi in the Mediterranean? It is profoundly a question of capability.

Realistically, in Ireland, it is a question of solving the housing crisis and the broader challenge of raising the capacity and the quality of government services. Our politics is tired and weary from permanent polycrises, including the bailout, the pandemic, housing, health and the energy crisis. The cost of failure to deliver is that we allow our values slip. If that happens, we will be diminished as a people. We will be known not for our welcome but our inability to welcome those who throw in their lot with ours.

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