Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I did not interrupt the Minister. What are we looking at here? The UN estimates that at the end of 2023, there were more than 117 million displaced people in the world. I understand the number has gone up to almost 120 million. What are we doing about that? What lens are we looking through to see what is happening in the world? What voice are we using? Are we using our voice as a neutral and independent sovereign state to ask what is happening and what we will contribute to that debate as a small country? Our voice is much stronger given our history and I would like to hear it. If 120 million people are displaced, no amount of border protection, detention centres, prisons or walls will sort that out. For as long as I am here, whether it is for a few weeks or a few more years, I will use my voice to say that is wrong. Do not build Europe up as a fortress. Mr. Borrell is telling us that everything outside the walls of Europe is a jungle. Remember that? Ursula von der Leyen tells us that what Benjamin Netanyahu is doing is okay.

That is the type of Europe we have. I will not be part of that Europe and I am a committed European. I have had the privilege of living in Germany and learning the language. I have family there. I am a European in a different sense to what von der Leyen and Borrell are telling us.

We are not allowed to vote on the seven individual parts of the pact. NGOs have spoken about the pact. I can pick from a number of papers. The Irish Refugee Council stated 161 NGOs called on members of the European Parliament to vote against the pact and that it will have devastating implications for the right to international protection and will greenlight abuses across Europe, including racial profiling, default de facto detention and pushbacks. The Irish Refugee Council prepared a briefing paper, which stated that it believes the reforms reflect an effort to limit access to protection for refugees in Europe and will result in fewer safeguards, increased attention and destitution among people seeking protection. I could go on.

I realise other submissions stated there were some good and bad things in the pact. I realise that. I have read every one of them. Overall, the pact is channelling a discussion in a particular fashion and way and for a particular narrative that allows people who have been regarded as being on the right to use it in a way that suits their arguments, as opposed to asking how we stand together through solidarity with the 600 people who went down on a ship this month last year. I did not hear von der Leyen say one word about those 600 people.

I hope to watch a BBC 2 documentary which aired last night on what is happening with the Greeks, who are under pressure, and how they are throwing people back into the water. Figures were given. How do we stand in solidarity with countries in the world which are the poorest and are taking the most asylum seekers and refugees? I would have loved if a Minister, or the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste, had quoted figures for the countries which are the poorest and are taking in the most.

Europe's percentage of refugees and asylum seekers has decreased significantly over the past number of years. The richest entity, which is on its way to becoming a military power and empire, speaks about a rules based order within its walls while everything outside of that does not deserve respect. People are treated with utter contempt, as if they go into a ship for the love and fun of it and to get fresh air in the Mediterranean. They are running for their lives and from appalling conditions.

Ireland and Europe are not looking at what part Europe is playing in those conditions, given the type of business and model we are pursuing. We can take a tiny look at this and say we are standing in solidarity. We are making a mockery of language because we are certainly not standing in solidarity with those who need our help. Von der Leyen does not need our help.

Our voices need to be heard loud and clear. We need to say that we have challenges in terms of the number of asylum seekers and refugees running from their countries. We need to ask why that is happening. We need to ask what we, as part of Europe, are going to do about that. We need to make words mean something when we stand in solidarity and show some human outrage at the 600 people that we know about who went down on one ship. That still continues to this day. I will not be supporting the pact.

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