Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I do not feel like celebrating Europe Day today for reasons that have been outlined very clearly for more than 19 months now. That is not to say that I do not appreciate Europe or the role it has played in the development of Ireland. I am often reminded of a quote by John McGahern, who said that Ireland was an agrarian society right up to the mid-20th century and then almost went straight to the 21st century.

I understand the role Europe has played in Ireland and the privileges it has given me, but I also understand the importance of trying to avoid hypocrisy where necessary. Too often when we sit here and talk about benefits without actually understanding, discussing or pointing to what can be fixed, it leaves us in that hypocritical space. As we speak, a genocidal form of ethnic cleansing is being inflicted upon a people. We must therefore use our platform not just to ask "are we not great?" and say "look how much we have benefited", but also to talk about the hideous forms of oppression and violence being inflicted upon another people.

Article 2 of the EU-Israel trade agreement has humanitarian clauses built into it. Following pressure from the Opposition, the former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, wrote to Ursula von der Leyen to ask if Israel was in breach of Article 2 of that agreement. More than 19 months have passed, and Ursula von der Leyen still has not responded to that message. She has not shown the courtesy or decency to respond to the leader of a country, and a fellow member of the European People's Party, on humanitarian clauses being breached. In the past, we discussed in this Chamber whether Israel could actually target a hospital. I remember the debate when all of us were to be careful because that had not been clarified yet. In the intervening period, it has bombed every hospital. Every hospital has been obliterated. Israel has targeted UN workers and journalists - you cannot get a journalist into Gaza at the minute for the very simple reason of the horror being inflicted there - and still the EU does not recognise that humanitarian clauses have been potentially breached.

We will continue to argue and advocate for the enactment of the occupied territories Bill in this Chamber. We are a member of the EU which has a trade agreement with built-in humanitarian clauses that are being denied. It is very difficult to celebrate that. It is very difficult to celebrate what is, ostensibly, a great peace project that was built out of the belief that "never again" should mean "never again" given that member states are transferring arms to Israel. We watch as the populations in Gaza and the West Bank are obliterated but we stay quiet. I refer to the collective quietness across the EU.

We say that we have been a loud voice. However, that is not even close to being good enough. At a stage where genocide is occurring and ethnic cleansing is now been spoken about openly, being a loud voice is no longer good enough. We need to be people who are screaming at every level, going to the EU and actually demanding that it stays true to the principles by which it has enacted clauses, because otherwise, does that not make us complicit? The horror upon horror that has been inflicted actually renders all this fairly meaningless. A small part of the world is being obliterated. It has been obliterated and that has been allowed to go unchallenged by the European Union. Words are not even close to being enough. Therefore, I will not be celebrating Europe Day today. We are blanketed in a cloak of shame because of what is occurring in Gaza by Israel which has been enabled by the US and by Europe.

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