Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am certainly not using my words to celebrate Europe Day. I say so because it has completely lost any moral compass, if it ever had one. We are two days away from the 75 years of the peace declaration by Schuman and we could not be further from that peace declaration.

The Minister of State presented an 11 page speech and I will intermingle that with the words of Simon Harris, our Tánaiste, and say that sometimes it is difficult the struggle for diplomatic words. However, the Minister of State has no difficulty in condemning Russia, which I agree with. He has absolutely no difficulty using the words "relentless brutality of Russia's illegal and unjustified war of aggression". He pointed out he has visited Kyiv and said, "I saw the determination, the dignity, and the resilience of the Ukrainian people." There is not a mention of the resilience of the Gazan people in Palestine. There was not a mention that journalists cannot enter the country. There was not a mention of what is happening. In my brief speaking time, I will quote the World Health Organization:

We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza because if we do not do something about it we are complicit in what is happening before our ... eyes ... As a doctor, as a physician, as someone watching more than 1,000 children without limbs ...

My time does not allow me to do this but it is really important to use words and use them appropriately. Some 51,000 Palestinians killed, 70% of whom were women and children, and we got 11 pages of a speech where the Minister of State, and the Government, urge Israel to show restraint. There was no condemnation. I do not know who is writing the speeches but to present an 11 page speech and not have a word of condemnation for Israel, which is in the middle of committing genocide on an ongoing basis, what level of bloodshed is required before we move on from where we struggle for diplomatic words to actually doing something?

When we look at Europe, I have said repeatedly I am a proud European. I have intimate connections with Germany through my family and the German language. I am not here to protest that I am European. I am here to use my very short time to say that I am ashamed to be European, with its current leadership and with von der Leyen standing shoulder to shoulder and in solidarity with a war criminal. She is somebody who said Netanyahu "made the desert bloom" while the Israeli army moves in under our watch and with our permission to kill, maim and destroy Gaza. Surely in the Minister of State's 11 page speech he might have used some words of condemnation in relation to genocide. I am ashamed to be here looking at this speech and what I am reading about Palestine and I do not use my own words because they do not suffice any more. According to the Red Cross, the situation in Gaza "will haunt us" for decades because nobody will be able to say we were not aware.

Europe has become a military industrial complex. The figure of €800 billion has been given to build up a war machine. We are an independent sovereign State, a neutral republic that should use our voice for peace in the world if we are seriously interested in following the legacy of Schuman and taking his words at their highest level for a peace project, which I had serious concerns about from day one because I think it was a veneer behind something else. We are in a Europe that is now building up - to paraphrase the words of the financial columnist Ganesh - to run down "the welfare state to build [up] a warfare state."

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