Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Carthy has already spoken about accession. Whether we are talking about the western Balkans, Moldova, Ukraine or Georgia, the Copenhagen criteria need to be met. While countries must be engaged with and a route map must be provided for them to even meet them half way, the rule of law is absolutely necessary to maintain the sort of European Union we would like to see, which we sometimes do not see. There are some particular issues with Georgia at the moment.

I add my voice to what has been said about Ukraine and the continuing war by the Russians, led by Vladimir Putin. There has been a huge number of war crimes, such as kidnapping of children and others. At some point, we need to see a real attempt to put a peace process in operation and free those people from their disastrous circumstances and situation.

On humanitarian actions, Dóchas, Trócaire, the ONE campaign and Concern Worldwide were at the EU affairs committee earlier where they spoke about the 2025 EU budget proposal. There is talk of a 10 % actual reduction in overseas aid payments for projects from life-saving to human rights activities, to all the other pieces that are absolutely necessary. What they said about overseas aid in general was somewhat frightening: it barely covers one third of the needs. We all know about the issue of migration that exists at the moment, but if we will not deal with conflict and debt-laden developing countries and at least cover the bare minimum to save lives - I hope we can get to a point of improving lives in the developing world - we will be constantly dealing with these circumstances. It should not be a shock when the likes of Ursula von der Leyen seem to be concentrating not only on backing Israel and its genocide, but also on building up a military-industrial complex within the EU. The Irish people will not stand for that.

We know the moves that need to be made with partners to deal with the absolute atrocities being carried out by the Israelis. We need to see movement on the EU-Israel association agreement and make greater moves on the divestment from companies involved in illegal settlement and other Israeli actions against the Palestinian people. There is Sinn Féin legislation, but we need to see greater moves made in that direction.

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