Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Uachtarán. It is my honour, on behalf of the Labour Party, to welcome her here to address our Oireachtas. I express our appreciation for her warm and optimistic words by way of address to us today. I also thank her for not only quoting our iconic first woman President, Mary Robinson, but also that iconic band the Saw Doctors. We all appreciated her quoting those. On a more serious note, I also welcome the President's officials and our distinguished guests today, the Ukrainian ambassador in particular. I thank the President for her words and her long-standing support for Ireland, both personally and through the Commission more generally, as we have moved through the ongoing fallout for this country from the Brexit decision and as we move to secure a resolution on the Northern Ireland protocol. We thank the President for her solidarity on that front too.

The President made history as the first woman to lead the Commission and, as I have said, she has quoted from our first woman President here, Mary Robinson. We are all conscious of the huge gains that have been made for women's rights and for equality more generally in this country as a result of EU membership. It should be noted that Ireland has led on equality issues too. We have led across Europe in our referendum on marriage equality in 2015 and in our historic referendum to bring about abortion rights for women in 2018. We have led in some areas. However, we still have a lot more to do. While the President will hear from a number of women Deputies today, there are still far too few of us in the Dáil. Only 23% - fewer than one in four - of our Deputies are women, so on that front at least we have some way to go.

In her tenure as President of the Commission, Ms von der Leyen has faced some of the greatest challenges that have bound us closer together as a European Union. These include Brexit, to which I have referred, the dreadful Covid pandemic, and more recently, Russia's brutal war on Ukraine. These challenges have reminded us all of the importance of the EU as a peace project, a collective endeavour and a model for promoting economic and social progress. In this country we are particularly conscious that the financial crash damaged the Union and important lessons were eventually learned. We hope the mistakes made then by the EU and the European Central Bank, ECB, will never be repeated. What all these crises have shown is the critical importance of the role of the state, and of collective action across states, in tackling crises and problems. We have learned that over-reliance on the market will not solve complex transnational and international problems.

At EU level, the energy crisis brought on by Putin’s imperial war of conquest in Ukraine has shown the weaknesses of our artificially constructed energy markets, as record profits are made on renewable electricity due to the reliance on gas prices as a reference for setting electricity prices. That has been acknowledged at EU level. Too often in this country the excuse of EU competition rules is used as a barrier to necessary State action and it has also become a shield for Departments to put social services out to tender that should instead be run and funded directly by the State. However, it must be acknowledged, and it is welcome, that at EU level we have seen the benefits of transnational action on collective procurement for Covid vaccines, which was a huge benefit to this country and other countries during the pandemic. That ensured that, as a smaller country, we were able to secure supplies alongside larger countries. The need for collective action is nowhere more apparent than in response to the brutal war in Ukraine.

The strong action of the EU, in which Ireland has played a strong role, in delivering multiple rounds of sanctions against Russia has been welcome but we can do more. Our Government has failed to take up our Labour Party's proposal of Magnitsky legislation to punish human rights abusers and seize their assets. I would ask that the Commission would consider acting on this in an EU-wide approach to bring together a European Magnitsky law. On behalf of my party I welcome the President's move to establish a court to investigate and prosecute Russian crimes in Ukraine. That is a hugely important collective endeavour.

The war has also reminded us, as the President has said, of our enslavement to Russian fossil fuels across this Continent and of the need for swifter transformative climate action to address the existential climate emergency. The EU represents our best collective chance to achieve this by ensuring a community of 500 million people decarbonises in speedy time. More than ever we need the European Green Deal to be translated into action in our countries, across Europe and across the world, by supporting developing countries with a just transition and adequate resources to tackle the adverse effects of the climate emergency.

Our party is the Irish member of the Party of European Socialists, PES. When I addressed the PES leaders conference in Berlin six weeks ago, I outlined the need for more action at EU level on workers’ rights, childcare, housing and the cost of living and on delivering the social Europe, that collective goal to which the Labour Party and the PES aspire. While we recognise the huge achievements of the EU in delivering rights for workers and women and in delivering maternity leave and employment protection rights, we recognise there is still much more to do. In Ireland we are seeking to bring forward legislation to provide for leave for women and their partners undergoing fertility treatment and to support women during early miscarriage. Again, we are urging the Commission to take this up at EU level.

I thank the President again on behalf of the Labour Party for her unwavering support for the peace process, for her stated commitment to ensuring the Good Friday Agreement will be protected, and for her optimism.