Helen McEntee: Celebrating Ireland's Role in a Stronger Europe

Fianna Fáil, Sir Lindsay. President Costa, President Zelensky, Taoiseach, Tánaiste, dear colleagues, distinguished guests, to our wonderful, wonderful artists, band, choir, a cháirde, céad míle fáilte ráibh go léir, is lán móir éiseoat d'Éireann agus don aontas orpach. It's hard to not feel inspired after listening and watching our wonderful artists here today, because today is a day to celebrate. It's to celebrate who we are as Irish people and to celebrate who we are as Europeans. It's a day of ambition for our country and indeed for our union, a union of our shared interests, inheritance and, importantly, our shared future. One that is built not simply through treaties or institutions but by people. And so today is about the student who studies abroad and returns home with new ideas. The farmer whose livelihood is pivotal to our food and climate security. The entrepreneur who can sell to a market of 450 million people. The researcher working with colleges across borders to find the next breakthrough. The family that can travel, work and build a future anywhere across our union. Today is about communities, those communities that have flourished through programmes like the Common Agricultural Policy, the Erasmus programme, Peace Plus, Horizon and beyond. It is about protecting the rights that we value, the freedoms that we sometimes take for granted. It is about ensuring that everyone – women, men, young and old, people from every background – that we all have the opportunity to contribute, to belong and to thrive. Our union has grown over time as new countries have joined our shared European story. Sometimes gradually, sometimes in moments of changed history. And later today we will remember the 2004 Day of Welcomes and draw inspiration once again from the timeless words Seamus Heaney wrote for that particular occasion. As Heaney urged us, move lips, move minds and make new meanings flare. Those words remind us that Europe's greatest achievements have always begun with dialogue. And so we see that same European spirit today in the courage and the determination of the Ukrainian people. It is expressed so powerfully again by President Zelensky, but it's also reflected in the lives of the tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have found safety and welcome in Ireland and across Europe. They are no longer strangers, they are neighbours, they are classmates, they are colleagues, they are friends, welcomed into communities from the heart of Dublin to villages along the Western Seaboard. And so today is also about our pursuit for peace in Europe, pursuit of peace in the Middle East and beyond. And yes, there will be difficult days over the next six months, challenges that we cannot yet foresee, moments when our ambitions for competitiveness, security and our values will be tested. But every challenge also brings opportunity, an opportunity to strengthen Europe's economy, to create good jobs, to deepen our partnerships, to accelerate innovation and to build, importantly, a safer and more prosperous future for our citizens. We are ready to meet those challenges and to seize those opportunities together. Today in the spirit of our union and inspired by everything it has achieved and everything it can still become, let us dare to dream, let us choose ambition over complacency, let us believe that the next generation can enjoy even greater opportunities than the last. Let us work together to build a Europe that is more secure, more prosperous and more united, a Europe that continues to make a real difference in people's lives. Today friends, together with strength in unity, let us turn ambition into action. Our European tradition demands nothing less. Go raibh míle maith agaibh. Thank you.