Mark Dearey (Green Party)

I join with the Leader and my colleagues in expressing my sorrow and the sorrow of Green Party Members at the death of President Kaczynski, his wife and the 94 others who died at the plane crash in Smolensk on 10 April. Poland has lost its President and all nations grieve when they lose their president. Our thoughts are with the Polish people as they come to terms with this tragedy, one of many that has befallen that wonderful country in the past century and this century. Every county in Ireland knows Polish people in schools, sporting associations and workplaces. I employed a Polish woman for two years and we have got to know their work ethic, their industriousness, their wisdom borne of a suffering almost unparalleled in European history, and their commitment to their families. Ireland has benefited from knowing Polish people and from having people from Poland settle in our neighbourhoods and communities. Our sorrow is also with them.

The number of people who died was shocking and many were leaders, including 18 parliamentarians from the Polish political establishment. Of particular note is Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last President in exile of the Polish state. He handed over the insignia of presidential power of the second republic to Lech Walesa in 1990. A group memory has been eradicated by what happened and it is an event that will have reverberations within Polish society and therefore within the European Union for many years to come. One of the marvellous gifts of the expansion of the European Union has been that Poland is now a member. I remember that a visit to Poland broadened my sense of what Europe is, how accommodating it can be and how important it is to understand our history in a European context. That Poland survived a genocide attempt on its people and a cultural genocide in the summer after the Nazi invasion of 1939 struck me as demonstrating a remarkable resilience in the Polish people. I am sure they will move on from this, learn from it and mourn it. Our thoughts are with the people of Poland.