Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber this evening. I watched her presentation from my office but I am sorry I was not here in person. Like other colleagues in the Chamber, I recognise her contribution and role in the negotiations around Brexit, as well as the time and effort she is giving to it. It is a very sincere effort.

We are at the point where it very much looks that our neighbour Britain will leave the European Union. That event is coming into very sharp focus so it is of major concern. We had an incident last week with the Northern Irish fishing vessels being seized in Irish waters, giving a sense of the potential problems ahead.The waters ahead are very much uncharted and no one really knows what will occur. The Taoiseach said recently he has a sense that Britain might not leave the EU but I actually have a very strong sense that it will. I am very sorry about that because when we joined the European Economic Community, EEC, almost 50 years ago, we did so at the same time as the UK. It will be a sorry day when the UK leaves the EU. As many Senators have said, the country we live in now is very different from the Ireland of 1973. It has a much greater sense of independence and it is more prosperous and educated. Senator Horkan referred to Erasmus and all it has done to the benefit of Ireland, as a member of the EU, and Irish students down the generations.

Peace and coexistence on the island of Ireland have been really important since we joined the EU. I am very proud that Ireland is a member of the EU. My opinions on it have changed over time, as have those of the European Greens. When the EU was the EEC, the European project was too easily portrayed as an anti-democratic, bureaucratic programme that acted in the interests of big businesses and industries. The world was then divided by the Cold War. The EEC seemed to be inextricably linked to old world thinking on the balance of power but the creation and deepening of the EU and the expansion of its activities into new areas, such as social and environmental protection, and its continuing on the path of democracy mean that the Union of today - the one the UK is now choosing to leave - differs as much from the EEC as the Ireland of today differs from the Ireland that became a member state with the UK all those years ago. To Ireland today, the EU can be used as a force for good, a tool with which to temper the worst excesses of globalisation and effect the change we wish to see globally.

By pooling sovereignty and uniting in our shared ideals, the EU allows Ireland and Irish people to play a role in the world far beyond what they could otherwise hope to play. Used correctly, EU membership is one of the strongest assets in Ireland's toolkit. Sometimes I fear the UK will learn this lesson all too late. This is not to say that the EU is complete or that the European Greens are happy with its current construction. More democracy, more controls on lobbying and influence peddling, and greater action on the crucial issues facing us today, such as climate change, energy pressures and the ecological crisis, are essential.

While I am proud Ireland is a member of the Union, I am sad I cannot be as proud of our Government's record on the issues that face the Union today. These include digitalisation, financial transaction taxation, strong climate action, and supporting and insisting on the rule of the law and the maintenance of standards of democracy. We want to see Ireland stand proud in favour of progress of a kind that is not really fought for. Right now, when relations with our European partners matter most, we are burning up huge amounts of political capital in opposing any progress in the areas I have mentioned. I want to see Ireland as a leader in Europe and as the open-minded, progressive and enthusiastic nation most Irish people want it to be. Nowhere has a failure to adhere to the ideals of the EU been more clearly portrayed than in our attitude to the Hungarian governing party, Fidesz. It is only today that the Fine Gael MEPs came out to say they were voting against the Hungarian party in the European Parliament.

This week, the European People's Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe blocked the student activist, Greta Thunberg, from speaking in the European Parliament. That is a great mistake because people like her are an inspiration. She is a young leader of the grassroots. People like her should be heard because she is speaking to a younger generation.

The EU is a union of some 500 million people, united in their diversity, moving ahead in a very uncertain world. I would like to see Ireland taking leadership in Europe and not being led by it. In my two and a half short years in the Seanad, I have felt Ireland has very much been dragged along by Europe. I would like to see that change and Ireland becoming a beacon of hope and a nation taking leadership.