Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome our guests. It is very important that they get to see democracy in action here. The Deputy Leader will be aware that 9 May, which is next week, is Europe Day. We are celebrating 50 years of Ireland's membership of the European Union. Our EU membership has transformed this country socially and economically. We can all be very proud to say that we are both Irish and European. One of the most successful programmes in recent years has been the DiscoverEU programme, which every year allows approximately 30,000 18-year-olds in the EU and a number of Erasmus partner countries to obtain a travel pass allowing for free travel, under certain restrictions. More than 200,000 18-year-olds have benefited from it since 2018. We should look to be even more radical. We should look for everybody within the European Union or the EU's partner countries to be given a free travel pass for use on public transport throughout the European Union when they turn 18. In fact, there should even be negotiations with the airlines and ferry companies because, for those of us on an island, it is a little bit more challenging to use some of the rail services in Europe. We should be ambitious. This could be a way of celebrating the European Union because, while we can read about things and see things on screens, having the opportunity to travel and see other parts of our wonderful Continent can be transformative.

Related to that issue, I am very happy to talk about a twinning that has been arranged between the Gymnázium Bilíkova school in Bratislava and Gorey Educate Together Secondary School. This is the first time that a school in Ireland has been twinned with a school in Slovakia and it will allow opportunities for students and staff in Slovakia to come here to Ireland and for students from Gorey and north Wexford to travel out there. I will put on record my thanks to the ambassador here, Andrej Droba, and to the staff at the Slovak Embassy. For us to establish these kinds of links, we need to encourage them and build on them further.

Finally, I will make reference to and very strongly welcome the speech by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs at the Royal Irish Academy this week in which he set out Ireland's relationship with China. While we want to engage and do trade with China, the Tánaiste set out very clearly that we cannot turn a blind eye to human rights. I very much welcome this approach on the part of the Government and the Department of Foreign Affairs. The speech was welcome and I hope that we might have an opportunity to address the Tánaiste on Ireland's relationship with China in the near future.