Dáil Debate | Europe Day

On behalf of the Labour Party, I welcome the opportunity to speak today to mark Europe Day. It is a particularly auspicious date as today we also mark 50 years since the referendum to join the then European Economic Community was held and passed in Ireland. Since then the EU has driven social and economic change across Ireland, for the most part for the better. In particular, the equal rights of women have been advanced through the passage of EU laws. There have also been difficulties, of course, and the Labour Party has been very critical in many instances of the European project over the years, including at the initial point of holding the referendum 50 years ago. All of us are cognisant of the rigid economic approach taken by the EU and the ECB to the economic crash in 2009 that led to us losing our sovereignty as a nation. However, with Brexit and most recently with the horrific and brutal war in Ukraine, we have seen how the EU has acted collectively and strongly in solidarity and how being an integral part of the EU has amplified and strengthened our voice as a nation within the EU.

Learning from the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen the potential for stronger integration across the EU in healthcare, most notably in collective purchases. After a slow and difficult start, with difficult issues around the purchasing of equipment, in particular, the EU worked together on vaccine purchase and we, as a small country, were able to access vaccines through an EU deal that a similar country might have struggled to secure without that collective strength. The war in Ukraine has shown the real potential for greater collective solidarity across EU nations through working to ensure security of supply and a refusal to deal with Russian oil and gas. This also has massive implications for our policies on climate. Indeed, one of the strongest and most positive aspects of EU policy in recent years is the European new green deal. It is important we see that collective solidarity come to the fore in working on tackling climate emissions and in meeting climate targets. Today, there was a stark and dire warning from the World Meteorological Organization regarding the path we are on currently, with a 50:50 chance that average global temperatures will exceed the Paris goal of 1.5°C over the next five years. That shows the vital importance of working collectively to ensure effective action on climate.

The war in Ukraine has put in clear focus the initial project of the EU as a peace project, in its institution shortly after the Second World War and in the aftermath of that war and the devastation wreaked across the Continent. It was born out of a desire to deliver closer economic and political co-operation and to avoid the horrors of war being inflicted on the Continent again. That idea of Europe is once again a political goal that is at the fore of all our minds as we see war being fought on our Continent and the brutal invasion of Ukraine. Certainly, for people in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and the countries of the Western Balkans, the peace and stability they have seen brought about by the EU are clearly an aspiration for many of them. We must support them and, in particular, the request by Ukraine that we support its rapid accession to the EU. The Taoiseach has spoken on that on a number of occasions. It is also important to note how generously the EU has responded by delivering aid and supplies and, critically, by providing refuge for so many millions of those fleeing their homeland because of the war. While Ireland is militarily neutral, we should not be politically neutral in the face of this brutal and illegal war. We have been clear in our role to support Ukrainians fleeing the devastation there and to support the non-military response to the war at European level.

As regards the European response, I wish to speak briefly about collective economic approaches being adopted by the EU. In the mechanism of the post-Covid recovery fund the EU introduced the concept of collective debt through the issuing of €800 billion worth of joint bonds to fund the recovery. That was a historical development that could have been learned from the previous response to the economic crash in the late 2000s. The same mechanism is now being proposed as a way of raising the billions of euro that will be needed to support and fund Ukraine and, when the war ends, to support the rebuilding of that country. The Labour Party would welcome that plan. We can see the clear need for collective effort and collective financing for Ukraine, as well as debt relief for Ukraine. As my colleague, Deputy Howlin, said last year, the European Union reflects the political opinions of member state governments and of directly elected MEPs. That is why we must campaign, and I am conscious it is a real challenge for our party, to elect left wing and centre left MEPs and progressive governments across the EU to deliver on our political objectives and to ensure that the EU acts with that sense of collective solidarity.

There was great relief across Europe when Marine Le Pen was defeated in France. To have seen the election go a different way and to have seen a government that was staunchly against the EU and committed to undermining the EU would have been against all our interests.

Social Europe, that collective goal to which the Labour Party and the Party of European Socialists aspire, has delivered rights for workers and women and for greater equality. It has also delivered on employment rights generally. The negotiation under way on an EU law for an adequate minimum wage will deliver on a key principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights. Tomorrow the Dáil will debate the Labour Party's Living Wage Bill 2022. I have circulated an email to all colleagues about that. It is one aspect of ensuring there is a rise in people's incomes to meet the terrible cost-of-living crisis that so many are experiencing across the country at present. We are seeking Government support for that Bill. It is in line with a commitment in the programme for Government to ensure that the minimum wage becomes a living wage and that there is a mechanism to ensure a pathway to a living wage over three years. That is the premise of our Bill and we hope to see it passed in the House tomorrow.