Micheál Martin: Trade, Child Protection and Housing Priorities

Thank you very much indeed President Missoula and group leaders and I want to thank everybody who contributed to the debate and I think it illustrated the rich diversity of opinion and views within this Parliament and I've taken careful note of every individual contribution. So forgive me if I perhaps just respond thematically in relation to a number of issues that were raised and I want to thank Commissioner Sefcovic for his contribution and just to say in the context of that contribution that it is our belief that the Commission is taking the strategically correct decision to expand trade deals between the European Union and other countries to counteract the increasing protectionism of others. It is important that strategically we seek to conclude deals as effectively as we can, protecting workers' rights along that process and the essential values that underpin our economy. Our experience has been that free trade deals and trade deals benefit workers, create more jobs that has been our experience, it can be Europe's experience into the future. In terms of a key theme that has emerged, protecting children is uppermost in the Irish Presidency and I thank MP Weber for your remarks in that respect in the sense that others and Valerie and others spoke about the importance of the regulation and the legislation. We are looking forward to the expert panel review from the Commission, it is extremely important that we do everything we possibly can to protect our children from social media and online and we must devise the best mechanisms to do that. In terms of competitiveness and enterprise, Commissioner McGrath is responsible for the Europe Inc. programme and idea. He comes from a country which values social partnership. We have had strong relationships with our trade union movement for decades and we will continue to work in partnership with them. We understand the balance that has to be struck between facilitating enterprise and new ideas but also protecting the rights of workers. But neither are mutually exclusive. We were at the National Tindal Institute in Cork last week with the President of the Commission and indeed other Commissioners and we saw there how research and development and ideas around semiconductors and photonics, those ideas lead to this formation of small companies which provides jobs for workers, which expands and grows. Competitiveness agenda is about facilitating that dynamic and we must do it more, we have to do it faster and it's about jobs and it's about workers. But those small companies need to be European from day one. We cannot have national barriers against those small companies that will expand and grow and create new jobs and savings and investment union is about underpinning that growth by providing the necessary capital to enable growth at scale. Because the one weakness that researchers and people are saying to us in Europe is the absence of that capital and markets union within Europe and the absence of scale and many of our companies pivot to the American, US and elsewhere for that venture capital. Could I say also that in terms of the social issue, and many spoke about housing, in Ireland housing is the number one social issue and the bulk of spending comes from the national exchequer towards housing and we are making progress but we have to make a lot more progress. So we will work hard during our Presidency, we're working with the Commission to convene a special conference on housing, a summit on housing to give that priority, we will support the Affordable and Social Housing Act because it is something that's not just an Irish issue, as I've learned it's across the entirety of Europe itself. In terms of the key strengths of the European Union historically, there is no doubt and I've listened to many members speak about the centrality and importance of food security and our farmers in particular and our farmers have progressed over the last number of years and continue to innovate and we must continue to support food production, I understand people's concerns in respect of cohesion, but then we have to balance that also then in terms of growth and that speaks to the budget and that will be challenging, very, very clear from the contributions, sometimes trying to navigate the budget negotiations is like trying to reconcile the irreconcilable in terms of different views and perspectives, but we must do it because Europe needs a budget and we want to work with the Parliament in advance and to get work done on the files, to try and prepare as much as we properly can so that Europe is well prepared for the next seven years, it unquestionably needs that budget. And on security, we are, Ireland is a peacekeeping nation, always has been, militarily non-aligned but we're not politically neutral and we understand when Russia invades Ukraine that's a violation of the UN Charter and Europe has been consistent on that fundamental truth and we must remain so. But we must also, in terms of our, we must be consistent in the application of rule of law across the entirety of the Union and in all matters and in all respects and our principled global outlook must also be consistent where all conflict and war emerges and we will work hard with the Commission and with the Parliament in particular to advance that, the enhancement of capability and protection and greater resilience, particularly in terms of critical undersea infrastructure, in terms of cyber security and the newer hybrid threats that we're all collectively facing. And finally, the issue, and people have different perspectives on matters to do with climate and so on like that, but without question, we are witnessing fairly significant events that we didn't witness before. We are, on the Green Island of Ireland, and by the way, our grass is as green as it's ever been, but we have far more violent storms now, which are having greater impact. We see all the wildfires across Europe right now, adaptation is important, we have to deal with this. There's no point in saying it's not happening, it is happening. You can have a different name for it, but Europe needs to respond in a resilient manner to these issues also. I thank you, I look forward to working with you on the wide variety of issues that you've raised this morning. We understand what has worked for Europe, but we also understand that Europe needs to look ahead and be visionary in making sure that the generations that follow us have a Europe that they can be proud of, that they can love to live in, to work in and to rear a family in. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.