Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our three colleagues from the European Parliament. Mr. Kelleher and Mr. Kelly will forgive me if give a particularly warm welcome to our former colleague, Ms Grace O'Sullivan, because she was such an exceptional Member of the Seanad. I am sure I would have said the same about Mr. Kelleher if I had been here at the same time as he was, or perhaps not. He is right. Ms O'Sullivan was an exceptional Member. She fought valiantly on a range of issues, and she was superb at building alliances. I have no doubt she is continuing that work. It is great to see her.

I want to take up the point Mr. Kelleher began with in describing the European Union as a union of values. It is important to have a conversation around those values today if we can. In that respect, I wish to raise two or three issues on which the MEPs might reflect. The first is the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights, TRIPS, waiver. Surely if we are serious about European values, then we must address the fact that whereas, thankfully, there are very high vaccination rates across most of Europe, vaccination rates across Africa are 11%. Unfortunately, the European Commission is the key blocking vehicle in allowing a TRIPS waiver. Even last week, in talks with the African Union, it did not allow the word "waiver" to appear in the report of the dialogue. That is just wrong. I am very proud of the fact that this Seanad on a cross-party basis called for a TRIPS waiver before Christmas. There was some initial opposition from the Government, but it melted away because all of the Members here from every party stood up and said this is what needs to happen. The views of the three MEPs in that regard would be welcome, in particular as the Government, unfortunately, continues to drag its heels. Even last week, the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, did not speak out in favour of a TRIPS waiver; in fact, he did quite the opposite. It is important to hear Irish voices in Europe make that clear call here this afternoon if possible.

In a similar vein, as a member of the Council of Europe, I am particularly concerned about the plight of migrants in recent years. As the MEPs know, 20,000 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. We have serious concern about the proposed European pact on migration. I am pleased that the Council of Europe passed a motion calling for a comprehensive human rights assessment by the European Commission on the compatibility of each of the proposed measures in the pact with case law of the European Court of Human Rights. It is hard to take seriously talk of European values when human beings are drowned in the Mediterranean and when MEPs vote against increased search and rescue missions, unfortunately including some in this room this afternoon. We need to speak out very clearly on the need for state-led search and rescue missions because, otherwise, how can we ever talk of values.

Finally, I wish to ask about the position on the proposed EU directive on the minimum wage. It is a very important directive regarding collective bargaining rights so I would like to hear the views of the MEPs on that as well.