Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is fitting that these Europe Day statements take place this year just four weeks out from the European elections on Friday, 7 June. Those elections will take place at a time when Ireland and Europe are facing many challenges and I believe these elections will be seen as an opportunity for people to have their say on the change they want in Ireland and in Europe. We have a Government that is out of touch, that does not understand the challenges we are facing, certainly does not have the ideas or the capacity to fix them, and appears incapable, if the Tánaiste's statement is anything to go by, of uttering a single critique of the European Union.

Sinn Féin believes that Ireland's place is in the European Union, but we also believe that the Irish people are best placed to make the decisions that affect them, particularly on issues such as foreign affairs, tax and investment in public services. Sinn Féin is for a European Union that works better for the people of Ireland and the people of Europe. We are for a European Union that supports its member states, listens to what those states need and understands that most decisions are better taken as close to the communities affected by them as possible. It is time for the European Union to focus on what matters to workers and families: the cost of living crisis, improving workers’ wages and conditions, regional development, economic development and, of course, enabling young people to work, study and travel across the EU.

The Common Agricultural Policy, probably the policy that best defines our membership of the EU, has served different purposes over decades, from incentivising food production to the delivery of environmental benefit. However, as its purpose has developed and expanded, its budget has been eroded in real terms with the agreement of Irish Governments. Agriculture will remain a priority for Sinn Féin in Europe, and we will advocate for a reinvigorated CAP to match our ambitions of ensuring food security and delivering for the environment within a framework that will secure the family farm for generations to come.

There are many longer-term challenges, including food security, climate change and migration. On all these issues, the European Union can support sovereign member states or it can exacerbate the challenges we are facing. The focus should be on using our common strengths to respond quickly and effectively to these challenges. EU enlargement cannot be used as an excuse for moving from unanimity to qualified majority voting, to weaken the position of smaller member states such as Ireland or to lessen the support the EU gives to vital sectors. Retaining our voice within the EU has to become a priority. It is certainly a priority for Sinn Féin.

The EU's voice as a vehicle for peace and conflict resolution has been weakened by its failure to speak for those values throughout the ongoing barbaric genocide being perpetrated against the people of Palestine, particularly in Gaza. As we stand in the comfort of this Chamber having left our comfortable homes, we must recognise that as a European state we stand complicit in the horror that continues to unfold in the Middle East. There, too, hundreds of thousands of people have left their homes, but they were forced out decades ago. They were forced into Gaza, long known as the largest open air prison in the world , where they suffered oppression, occupation and economic hardship. Latterly, they suffered a brutal and horrendous blockade and they endured bombardment after bombardment and assault after assault. They watched as more and more of their children were murdered. For years, it seemed that it could not get worse.

Since last October, however, it has become much worse than could ever have been imagined. The people of Gaza have again been forced to leave their homes, not once or twice but, in many instances, six times, and each time to circumstances more depraved than the last. They were the lucky ones. Thirty-five thousand Palestinians, including almost 15,000 children, have been murdered. Genocide is the only term that comes close to describing what we are seeing. The so-called lucky ones have found themselves in the middle of a humanitarian catastrophe in Rafah, where they are denied food, shelter, fresh water and medical aid. It is collective punishment, pure and simple.

All the while, world leaders have failed to respond adequately. That failure has allowed Israel to continue its genocide without consequences. Some world leaders have gone further and actively facilitated the genocide. The continued support of the United States, militarily and financially, to Israel is inexcusable and indefensible, but so too are the actions of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In offering unconditional support to Israel, she enabled the Israeli actions against Palestinian children, women and men that we have seen. Therein lies our complicity because, when Ursula von der Leyen purported to speak for Europe, she claimed to speak for us. She did not, and does not, speak for the Irish people. When the world should have been imposing sanctions on Israel for its gross violations of international law, the EU was giving Israel a licence to kill, starve and bomb and to break every rule in the international humanitarian rule book.

Now, Israel, as it prepares for the invasion of Rafah, plans its final destruction of Gaza. The people there, some of whom have moved six times, are being told to move again. To where? Nobody can even guess. We know what awaits the people of Rafah if Israel proceeds.

Some 1.4 million people to face annihilation. Half of those who will be killed will be children. International law and the UN charter will be torn to shreds, and all the while we will talk without taking any action because in truth not a single sanction has been imposed by the EU or Ireland on Israel for its actions. It has not paid a single penalty for what it has done. As long as that continues, we will be complicit and the European Union will be complicit. We have lost our voice as a champion for peace, justice and international law. That must change now.

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