Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The point has been well made that people in the street will probably not know that today marks Europe Day. That is fine. As a proud European, and as a Member of a Parliament that has benefited greatly, it is right and appropriate that we stop to take stock of the day and how we have benefited from being part of the Union, but also to discuss the style of leadership, the challenges the Union faces and how our Republic can contribute to enhancing a Union that was built on peace and prosperity.

Since it joined the then EEC in 1973, Ireland developed at a pace that was once not thought possible. I am reminded of the sentiments expressed by the writer and poet, John McGahern, who said that Ireland was a 19th century society right up to about the 1980s, and then we bypassed the 20th century. Much of the acceleration came when we joined the EEC. It was a moment of pride, togetherness and determination for a brighter and shared future.

The EU has many faults. I intend to spend much of my time addressing those. Going forward, I hope we can use our position as a member state to right some of those wrongs. We must examine where we see ourselves as part of the Union in terms of a position of leadership and as a contributor rather than just being subservient to the will of the more powerful or those who view themselves as being more powerful.

We have greatly benefited both socially and economically from our membership. Upon its commencement, we began to free ourselves from the covert control of the Catholic Church. Prior to joining the European Union, we had a referendum to remove the special place of the Catholic Church from our Constitution. That fight has continued in subsequent decades, through the marriage equality referendum and the fight for bodily autonomy, which continues to this day. Our newfound self-determination has allowed us to reassess our values, which led to us strengthening our human rights record, driving forward on civil and social rights, introducing gender equality legislation, improving the protection of workers' rights and becoming a much more tolerant, kind and inclusive country.

Our membership of the EU gave us the confidence required to chart this course on our own. However, it should be stated that if we celebrate Europe Day as we do, and if we believe that our membership of this Union is one of which we take stock of every year, we must appreciate that people want to join us. That is something we must acknowledge and commit ourselves to continuously.

A recent report from the Council of Europe has found EU countries are increasingly resorting to illegally rejecting refugees and asylum seekers with next to no accountability. The anti-torture committee of the Council of Europe found clear patterns of physical ill treatment against migrants attempting to cross borders all over Europe. The report found that refugees were punched, slapped and beaten with weapons by police and border guards, who often removed their ID tags or badges. People rightly associate this Union with peace, yet we inflict violence on those who attempt to become part of it. Furthermore, migrants have been illegally pushed back, so many face expulsion from European states either by land or by sea without having their asylum claims heard. That is contrary to EU law. The Council states that these victims have been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. Some have had bullets fired close to their bodies while they lay on the ground, while others have been pushed into rivers and sometimes had their hands tied or they have been forced to walk barefoot and even naked back across the border. That level of ridicule and inhumanity cannot be part of the peace of the European Union. It cannot be that this fortress Europe inflicts such a degree of degradation and violence on those who wish to be part of it. This is happening in Europe, a Union that is built on peace, but what we are seeing is violence being inflicted.

We are a member of the Council of Europe, along with another 45 member countries. We signed the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits torture and inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. Even closer still, on our streets we have seen those who came here in search of asylum experiencing degrading treatment from the State. That has been reflected in very recent court judgments. The International Protection Office, IPO, on Mount Street is surrounded by tents occupied by people who came here in search of sanctuary. They were not even given a tent, but they have been able to acquire one. They were given a food voucher. That cannot be part of our Republic. At the end of March, there were two tents sheltering homeless asylum seekers near the IPO where newly arrived asylum seekers begin their claims for international protection. Last Friday, there were upwards of 30 tents pitched on the streets surrounding it. This issue has been raised today. It will continue to be raised over the coming weeks. We cannot keep acting surprised when people seek to come to our Republic and the European Union in search of protection, whether they are fleeing war, famine or persecution.

I do not in any way underestimate the difficulty in terms of the protection we give to those who came to our borders from Ukraine following the horrendous invasion by the Russian Federation. However, we cannot continue to not meet our obligations to those who come here seeking sanctuary from other parts of the world, regardless of where they may be from. We cannot keep acting surprised.

As I do not have much time left, I wish to raise another issue of concern, namely, the poverty that is being experienced in Europe. Poverty is something that we in Ireland are not immune to. A report by Social Justice Ireland published yesterday found that nearly 700,000 people on our shores are experiencing horrendous poverty.

Poverty is experienced by one in five throughout the EU. It is experienced on a multitude of fronts and can include food poverty and energy poverty. I fully believe – this is a point I make each year when we have statements on Europe – that poverty is the greatest threat to the EU. If citizens within its borders are not experiencing its warmth, they will take it down. An example of this that I keep going back to is that of the former industrial heartland of the UK, many of whose constituencies voted against their interest and in favour of Brexit in 2015. We still live with the repercussions of those decisions today. If people cannot feed themselves or heat their homes, we cannot expect them to join us in celebrating a union from which we have benefited. The EU has to be about peace and prosperity for everybody; if not, it will be the biggest threat to its continuation.

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