Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

President von der Leyen, go raibh maith agat for your leadership during the Covid pandemic. Danke schön for your strength in our response to the war in Ukraine. Merci beaucoup for standing up for the Good Friday Agreement and the Irish protocol. On behalf of the European Green Party, I thank you for putting the European Green Deal at the centre of the whole economic strategy and social strategy for our Union at this critical time.

We know it is the right strategy because Europe is at risk. We could end up with a situation where we import all our software from the US in the west, all our hardware from China in the east and all our energy from Russia and Ukraine. Where would that leave us in terms of security or prosperity for the future? We believe and agree, like President von der Leyen has shown in her leadership, that this is a time to go back to our roots, but instead of a coal and steel union, at the centre now is going to be an electricity cable and fibre optic cable future for our 27 member countries. That strategy is why I thank President von der Leyen for the leadership she is showing. It will be renewable, as she said. It will be digital and it has to see nature restored for all our countries and people.

When it comes to Ireland doing that, yes, as President von der Leyen stated, we can sometimes be a beacon of light, but we should be open and honest and recognise that at times in the past 50 years we have been through storms. Sometimes, that light has not been seen. You have to accept us, as a fellow Member said using an Irish political phrase, warts and all. In that 50 years, we may have taken our beautiful island with its 40 shades of green for granted at times and not protected our local environment. We tripped up on two or three occasions when we had major recessions and saw ongoing emigration. All Members of this House recognise that we have a real issue at the moment providing homes for our people and the people who come rightly to our shores in need of help and looking to be part of this country that has, as President von der Leyen stated, stubborn optimism and openness to the world. We are not perfect, but in some way that puts us in a good place. If we can live up to this vision of a low carbon, digital and renewable future, other countries will say that if Ireland can do it, they can do it too. If the prodigal daughter can make it back home to living on this planet in a sustainable way, maybe we could be a lesson to the rest of the world.

What President von der Leyen stated is true. We stand on the precipice of real opportunity, at this cutting edge of the Atlantic and Europe, ready to tap into that Atlantic power and share it with our neighbours. The interconnector in respect of which the Taoiseach and I signed an agreement in Paris last Friday is not just a power cable. It is also fibre optic connected. We are going to look to connect Irish universities to France and beyond using that cable. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle will be glad to hear that the previous week we saw a similar cable coming from Iceland into Galway Bay. Now we are looking to see if we can head south to Portugal to be part of this interconnected and digitally connected European Union. That is what we can and will do as a country as part of the transition that President von der Leyen is leading.

We have done this sort of transition before. From the late 1950s through to when we joined the European Union, we went from a closed economic model to an open one. We did that by being consistent on some principles behind it, such as investing in education for all our people, joining the European Union and being open to enterprise and trade. Today, there are some similar principles in this new Union President von der Leyen is leading. First, it has to be based on climate justice. We saw that in Sharm el-Sheikh, where the European Union team made a significant contribution in breaking the north-south divide in the world. I was so proud when, at 4 o'clock on Saturday night, Sunday morning, the Polish representative said that what we had done was an example of European collaboration. That was true. We also need that justice here at home. The Fit for 55 legislative package President von der Leyen is leading out, with 20 major pieces of legislation, has to provide a just transition in this new economy. Last but not least, I will pick up on what the Minister for Foreign Affairs said about this being a peace project. It can be in this way; this new power is a shared power that has particular characteristics that are diverse, decentralised and limitless. We are in a race to the top with China and the US on this. Their success will not undermine ours. The Inflation Reduction Act could see their technology develop, but we can share in that because it is a shared power. If we go out with that attitude to the world, being innovative and clever on this and seeing it as a peak project in that way, we will succeed. I wish President von der Leyen the best of luck. I thank her for her leadership.