Paul Nicholas Gogarty
Dublin Mid-West · Independent · Ireland
“As I have mentioned in the House before, if a border poll passes by 52% to 48%, the legal threshold of the Good Friday Agreement is met but the social consensus is not and moving 800,000 citizens into a new state against their explicit, democratic will does risk causing civil unrest.”
“We also have other gaps that are much smaller, like a ten-year phased transition, reducing the net annual cost to between €2.5 billion and €3 billion. We then had the middle figure of about €11 billion. We actually do not know how much it is going to cost but we do know it is going to cost something.”
“For example, adopting a single currency, getting rid of the exchange rate volatility and the transaction costs for cross-Border businesses are all advantages.”
“I would be loath to call a border poll right now because of the risks associated with that, but if a border poll did occur, the State would have to be prepared for the huge structural disruptions that would follow, so we have to start working now - that is why this debate is welcome - without arrogantly presuming it is going to become a r…”
“I have been listening to this debate in my office since Deputy Currie started her contribution. I always follow these debates on Irish unity with interest as someone who wants to see a united Ireland by consent.”
“Some have been mentioned in this House, such as a devolved regional assembly in Stormont to preserve local governance for the unionist community, a shared bill of rights protecting the dual Irish-British citizenship, and re-evaluating our relationship with the Commonwealth.”
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“Someone needs to be called out. On the whole there have been some good projects, including other pocket forests and the Dublin Urban Rivers LIFE project. When all these are taken together on a national level, if colleagues will pardon the pun, unfortunately it is a drop in our dying ocean. Social Justice Ireland estimates that 56% of native plant species have declined in range and abundance, with grassland plants suffering the most. Some 85% of EU protected habitats in Ireland are in an unfavourable state and 46% are showing ongoing declines. Yes, biodiversity would be a good idea. This week we heard the news that Lady's Island Lake in County Wexford is experiencing severe pollution, primarily due to excessive nutrient run-off from agricultural activities.”
“Making statements on biodiversity in Ireland is a bit like that time when Ghandi was asked about western civilisation and he retorted: "I think it would be a good idea." Biodiversity in Ireland would be a good idea if we followed through. I welcome the €2.9 million funding announcement to local authorities for biodiversity projects under the National Parks and Wildlife Service local biodiversity action fund 2025. There has been great work done in my own local authority area of south Dublin, for example. We planted a pocket forest a few months ago which, much to the dismay of Lucan Tidy Towns and all the volunteers, myself included, after hours of diligent work, has now been torn to shreds and cut down for a cycle path because South Dublin County Council did not communicate internally - bureaucratic ineptitude at its finest.”
“It is good the rest of the EU and Europe appears to be finally waking up, but we will see. We must remember change only comes about when the bullies are confronted head on.”
“As I have said before, and feel compelled to say again because of the propaganda machine out there, I have nothing against the Jewish people. I condemn antisemitism. I acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. However, it is a powerful state that is abusing its power and committing atrocities. I feel for those families attacked by Hamas and condemn it outright, but this is nothing, in number terms only, compared to the atrocities being carried out against innocent Palestinians. As I and others have said, one life is sacred, but anyone with a moral compass will recognise Israel has committed way more atrocities. This is why we in Ireland stand steadfast with the oppressed in Gaza. We know what it is like to be oppressed and we will not be intimidated in the face of any threats from the Israeli government or indeed from the White House.”
“There are a whole load of areas of co-operation where engagement could be frozen and in this respect I ask the Minister of State to ask the Tánaiste whether there have been any discussions on whether the EU could restrict banking and financial transactions with Israeli institutions that support settlement expansion and military operations. This would make it harder for Israel to fund its activities in Gaza and the West Bank. For our part, we need to hurry up and bring the occupied territories Bill forward at the earliest opportunity. While it was good to see the arms embargo Bill pass to the next Stage in the Seanad unopposed, I hope the Government will continue in that spirit over the coming months and get it passed through the Dáil.”
“At this week’s meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas announced the European Commission would review the EU-Israel association agreement. We have yet to see what details emerge, but even from a signalling perspective this marks the first formal response to mounting calls for stronger EU action over the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It is long overdue even if it is too little too late and if the Government was involved in pushing for this then fair play, but we need real, tangible action and not platitudes. The EU has a preferential trade agreement with Israel that allows Israeli goods to enter European markets with reduced tariffs. Suspending this would significantly impact the Israeli economy and potentially force the Israeli government to reconsider its policy.”
“These babies are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and many of them will die over the next number of hours if food is not supplied. What is this if not another Holocaust? To be clear, it is sanitised extermination. There is no defensive justification. It is murder, pure and simple. The entire conflict over decades has been one-sided in terms of the atrocities committed, with Israel responsible for multiples of deaths. There have been ratios of 20:1, 30:1 or 50:1 depending on the sources and time periods. One life is precious and any life is precious, but the facts are undeniable. Despite this the world watches and lets the murder continue, except for a few lone voices. It appears things have got so horrific that even the EU, or at least some of its constituent member states, may be waking up.”
“Today it is 80 days since the humanitarian aid blockade of Gaza began. This regime has long since passed the threshold for what would constitute legitimate defence following the horrific and condemnable Hamas attacks on October 7. This was already genocide before the deliberate and inhumane blocking of lifesaving food, medical supplies and shelter, not to mention continued bombing, but new lows continue to be reached. The UN says no aid has yet been distributed in Gaza despite a few lorries starting to cross the border after 11 weeks. It estimates 600 trucks a day are required to begin tackling this chronic humanitarian crisis, so nothing is happening in real terms. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said today that as many as 14,000 babies could die in Gaza if Israel does not immediately let aid in.”
“The same problem arises in Clonburris but there is also woefully inadequate provision for services tied into the plan. There is only one full-size GAA or rugby pitch. It is a recipe for disaster, with 20,000 people living in the area. Adamstown needs a limited statutory review order, while Clonburris will need to be looked at in the next five years. Will the Taoiseach consider this?”
“Will the Government review the Adamstown and Clonburris strategic development zone plans? The last Adamstown review was 12 years ago. There is a major issue arising now due to insufficient carparking spaces. Planning permission has been granted on the basis of 1 to 1.25 spaces per unit but we now have one development near the train station, The Sidings, where there are no parking spaces provided whatever. There are growing families, workers with vans renting houses together and insufficient childcare facilities and a lack of public transport. It is not a panacea. People need to be able to drive but they also need to be able to park their vehicles. They are parking on bus lanes and footpaths all over the place. It is a total mess and there are ongoing complaints. By all means restrict car use, but not car ownership.”
“Unfortunately, a number residents passed away within weeks of being moved. That is not service. This motion addresses the financial challenges leading to many nursing homes closing. I support this aspect, but we do need a full rethink and a proper cost-benefit analysis of the entire homecare system and support structures. It is saving the State money, money that we apparently do not have in the bigger scheme. We need to focus funding in the best way possible to support families caring for loved ones and ensure that the dedicated staff are able to continue working in the service. I very much welcome this debate and do hope the Government will respond, as well as accepting the Independent Ireland motion.”
“There have been some efforts to address the pay gap but the section 39 organisations continue to struggle with attracting and retaining staff due to lower pay and conditions compared with the section 38 organisations. The pay disparity has led to reduced capacity to deliver services as section 39 organisations have often struggled to recruit and retain the skilled staff. If we do not provide the means to support people in the home, there is often increased pressure on nursing homes, with increased numbers of people needing to avail of the nursing home support scheme, the fair deal, yet the HSE does not respond. Caregivers Ireland organised weekly protests outside Lucan Lodge in an effort to get the HSE to take over the facility as a going concern but this did not happen and families were forced to scramble for places.”
“It is worth focusing for a while on the differential between the section 38 organisations, funded by the HSE, where pay is subject to public service agreements and where the workers receive the same pay increases as other public sector employees, and the section 39 organisations, which receive grant funding from the HSE and whose employees are not considered public servants. They are not subject to public sector pay scales and their pay is negotiated between individual organisations and employees. Going back to the 2008 financial crisis, there were pay cuts across the sector, including in section 38 organisations. Section 39 staff, however, did not get the same level of pay restoration, which has led to a significant pay gap.”
“This may affect the rural areas more but it is also an issue in urban areas, with insufficient hours allocated and sometimes home care visits rostered at hours totally unsuitable to the person receiving the care. Heavy traffic can also mean that an allocated hour is cut short by 15 to 20 minutes. The HSE has increased its dependence on outsourced companies to provide valuable services. Some of these companies are more focused on the monetary aspect and I have found it difficult to engage on behalf of constituents to try to get a response when raising issues. Others provide a dedicated service and there is absolutely no questioning the commitment of the workers themselves. If the pay is poor, however, we will not get the level of staff required.”
“One way or the other, the caring work continued, but she did feel the pressure as a result. There is also the issue of insufficient respite hours, as Deputy Richard O'Donoghue has mentioned. The Minister of State referred to the €62 million allocation but when this is spread out, it does not really give enough support . The carers' guarantee in the programme for Government is, of course, welcome. I also welcome the fact the Government is supporting this overall motion but looking at this sector holistically, we are adding unnecessary costs and burdens to the State when targeted funding could probably save money overall. For example, because of inadequate funding to service providers, we have staffing shortages.”
“Families will always care for each other whether or not they are getting any sort of contribution, but that is not the point. Families have a lot of pressure and they are the forgotten heroes. An indispensable contribution is also made by care workers in alleviating pressure on hospitals and long-term residential care facilities. Carers, paid and unpaid, are under pressure. Those on lower incomes are disproportionately affected by the current system of means testing and some illogical decisions. I have one constituent, for example, who works 20 hours a week and is also a half-rate carer. When she went on maternity leave, her carer's allowance was cut because of the double rule, even though in the months following she would be caring for her relative and minding a child.”
“Without carers, especially family carers, the burden on the State would be far greater. Over the years we have heard stories of people being placed inappropriately in geriatric wards or people who need more intensive care being sent home early because of insufficient spaces. Carers play a valuable role and unless we totally change our definition of what constitutes society in Ireland, it will never be every family for themselves and every individual without a family around them for themselves. We do see the value of supporting one another and this has a cost that has to be recognised. Many hours are put in for far less than the commercial cost of care, even allowing for the nature of the voluntary work and the ties that bind people caring for one another. That has to be said.”
“We do not have unlimited pools of money and there is a need to spend funding wisely in a targeted way, but even if the revenues continue to come in at current windfall levels we should never be talking about tax cuts when we are putting additional costs on families in other ways. We are not looking for miracle workers but a systemic, incremental, recordable progress to ensure the assessments and supports are available for those who need them.”
“I acknowledge that even with the best will in the world and all the resources at our disposal being thrown at the problem, filling the vacancies, identifying additional needs and reversing growing assessment of needs waiting lists has a lead time, but does this Government have a six-month target, a 12-month target or a three-year target that can be realistically reached? Is there any way we can outsource assessments in the short term, a bit like the National Treatment Purchase Fund, to utilise the resources of other countries for a specific period or is this going to be tied up in the wider organisational mess that is the HSE? We are a wealthy country.”
“I read today that it could be 25,000 by the end of the year according to the HSE’s estimates. This is shocking stuff. The Government is outrageously in breach of its legal obligations, as every Deputy has referenced, and as of now I do not see evidence of a pathway being carved to sort out this mess. Why then has this not been declared an emergency for children, as campaigners like Cara Darmody have called for, and why has a time-limited task force not been set up? We acted during Covid, we responded to Brexit, we supported thousands of Ukrainians and we are mobilising a response to US tariffs – or at least we are in terms of what Ministers have said – so why can this not be declared an emergency and a target set to redress the balance?”
“The Minister of State acknowledged that of the €333 million in additional funding provided in 2025, €290 million was allocated to maintain existing levels of service for people with disabilities, so where is the substantive funding for improvement? In the context of all the pressure to make services available, we are faced with another crisis we are discussing now, namely, the delays in getting assessed in the first place, and in this respect the list keeps getting longer and longer. Under the Disability Act 2005, as everyone has referred to, assessments of need should be carried out within six months of the referral to the HSE. At the end of December 2024 there were 14,200 outstanding assessments of need and now we are past 15,000 with just over 4,000 assessments being carried out each year. It is likely to rise further.”
“I have referred to how difficult it is to get a master's, to the fact that people have to go abroad and to the lack of a Dublin allowance for many jobs that are so valuable and needed. While healthcare is often a vocation, we will only encourage people to train here and stay here if they have a career pathway and adequate remuneration. Record amounts of money have been spent in this area, but we are only running to stand still because costs are rising, wages are rising, and funding is being delayed and not provided in a planned and consistent multiannual way, meaning providers are constantly firefighting.”
“Services for people with disabilities are in disarray. There is an ongoing battle for disability services to be provided where needs have been assessed. The National Federation of Voluntary Service Providers, which represents a mixture of voluntary public services organisations and voluntary grant-aided bodies, has gone on record recently to state their ability to deliver existing services and meet the needs in their communities is seriously under threat. These organisations provide a lot more services than the HSE does directly. The biggest issue relates to recruitment of staff, including occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and other front-line and support staff. The Government is not making it easy to recruit and retain skilled professionals in this area.”
“I am not sure whether this will result in the system being any quicker but at least we will know in real time what is happening. None of this explains the historic delays. Covid was mentioned. We have passed the fifth anniversary of the Covid restrictions at this stage, and we should have been addressing the backlog well in advance. While I very much welcome the current Government initiative, its arrival was belated. That is something we have to be careful of. We need more driving test centres. Other TDs mentioned that there are requirements in their areas. In south Dublin, we used to have a number of centres in Churchtown and in the Terenure-Rathfarnham area. We have one in Tallaght at present. The RSA is looking at bringing one back in the south Dublin area.”
“Like others, I raised this matter back in February. There has been very little, if any, progress since that time. What is happening is quite frustrating for TDs constituents. This is not really a local issue, although I do want to raise a local aspect in a moment. There has been no real progress since February. I mentioned at the time the need to implement the service level agreement requirement of ten weeks as is set out in section 28 of the Road Safety Authority Act. When replying, will the Minister to State indicate if there are any real consequences for the RSA if this is not done? I listened to the Minister of State's introductory speech. I welcome the fact that the RSA will have to report on various matters at two-week intervals. We will monitor that and see how it goes.”
“In this context, it is disappointing to hear that the much-touted housing activation office will have no legislative powers. How do we identify and seek to address barriers to funding and infrastructure for multiple Departments without such powers? That is a rhetorical question, unfortunately.”
“Logjams are seriously slowing the process down, and that is before community facilities, childcare, schools, public transport, playing pitches and the other amenities necessary to build communities alongside housing are even considered. There are also deficits in the energy grid. Instead of being able to produce multiples of our electricity needs here and export them, and also gain revenue from data centres, we are competing with them for scarce resources. Even the plans to allow people to generate their own solar with battery backup are affected in a stupid situation like Storm Éowyn because batteries are shut off during power outages, making the stored energy useless. I acknowledge that is a safety measure for ESB Networks workers but surely there is a workaround, rather than having to be sneaky about it.”
“The Institute for Management Development’s world competitiveness yearbook 2024 ranks Ireland 38th out of 67 countries in basic infrastructure. To take water as an example, Dublin City Council wants to build 6,000 homes in Ballyboggan but this is under threat due to a lack of water and sewerage infrastructure. The greater Dublin drainage project needs to be progressed. Nationally, it is estimated that we need up to €120 billion for water development. That is a huge amount and we need to focus on key projects as a result, through the Apple money and, of course, through strategic borrowing if necessary. We also need to resource our planning system, as others have mentioned.”
“In terms of attracting students here, is it to get revenue or is it to bring the best and brightest who will contribute to Ireland as an innovation hub? The jury is still out in that regard. We also have issues regarding accessibility and affordability. I merely want to raise the point that it is not necessarily about innovation; it is about services in our country that need to be looked at. There is a lack of grants for postgraduates. In the context of the speech and language master's programme, for example, Irish students have to spend up to €30,000. Many of them leave for England to get their master's degrees and some do not come back. We have a major shortage of speech and language therapists. That is merely one example. I have to leave it there because of the time, but I ask the Minister to have a think about it.”
“Ireland is 19th on the global innovation index but we are behind similar-sized countries such as Estonia, Denmark and Finland, which is in seventh place. I asked previously what is Ireland's equivalent to Nokia. In terms of research and development, what are we doing that is Irish born and that is creating jobs on the basis of Irish initiatives rather than international companies coming here? I welcome the Global Citizens 2030, the Impact 2030 and today's initiative. They are all very welcome. There are a lot of good points if they are implemented, and that is what we have to look at. However, there are a couple of challenges. One of these would be that we are currently facing a major shortage of places for students, especially in our major cities.”
“Maybe we should be taking religion out but let us have a wider and proper discussion on it and put it to the people, maybe through a citizens' convention.”
“If we held the referendum tomorrow, and remember the Catholic Church owns most of the schools in the State, I would hazard a guess that for noble reasons and for less noble reasons people would vote against taking religion out of schools, but we should have that discussion and we should put it up to the people. We do not want to end up like Australia with elite Catholic schools. The minority religions in this country do feel very strongly about having their ethos and the way they are tied up in the community. I do take on board some comments about how schools and churches are very much linked but in urban areas I definitely think that the closest school is always the best school for the child, irrespective of ideology.”
“Gabhaim buíochas leis an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. I agree with a lot of what the Social Democrats are trying to do. We do need to recognise the diversity we have and possibly take religion out of schools. It is an issue for parents to decide. Religious instruction being done outside school time makes a lot of sense. What we have in Ireland, however, is an Irish solution to an Irish problem where all the new schools - or most of them, 50 or 51 - are multidenominational. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach has given me an extra half a minute.”
“Something like this, out on the streets, is very welcome in this country, even though it is going to be raining half of the time. I support what Deputy Lawless said in relation to not overly oppressing the vintners and restaurants on this issue. Maybe there should be a licence to have outdoor seating at certain times of the year but it should not be included in the rates. We should then look at longer hours at night time, something that was touted about 20 years ago. I support the continuation of these provisions and I hope we get proper legislation in due course.”
“As the Minister said at the outset, this is just repeat legislation that is renewed every six months. As others have said, primary legislation could have been enacted some time ago but I am glad the Minister is living up to his reputation as being a hands-on Minister so far and is moving on this. It is something that most people would very much welcome but I always include the caveat that we have a toxic relationship with alcohol in this country. Having alcohol in a context where one can sit down, have a chat and have something to eat is the appropriate way to do it. Covid led to some people drinking at home and we should be trying to encourage people back into the pubs, back out having a bit of grub and socialising with each other again.”
“There are risks, of course, that some will go to the dark web or use VPNs to circumvent restrictions if what we do is not sufficient, but we need to show leadership rather than hide behind laborious EU initiatives. We brought in the smoking ban; why can we not get moving on a ban on social media as well?”
“In early 2023, the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said that parents know best when it comes to banning youngsters from social media or imposing phone restrictions. That was in response to touted legislation in the UK that was less stringent than the Australian model being touted. However, teachers, who see the impact first hand in the classrooms, will beg to differ. The Tánaiste, the original TikTok Taois, as he has been called, said last year as well as today that the era of social media giants regulating themselves is over, so I understand how seriously he takes this, but let us regulate them. If we cannot protect our children adequately, we have to make sure they live safer lives by banning use. If you start at 16, it might help the 12- or 13-year-olds. Maybe a citizens' convention on this issue could be held.”
“It is not a panacea and there are drawbacks, but our children must come first, not the super-rich tech barons currently prostrating themselves before the Trump Administration.”
“We have vulnerable developing minds, in some ways, yes, more clued in than older generations to scams and spam, but at the same time less discerning as to how they access news content, what they share with their peers and what they learn from inappropriate access to adult content without any context or filters. Calls for regulation have not worked so we need to move to the next level. At this point, as a legislator, I believe we should seriously explore what they are doing in Australia, a liberal country, where the world's strictest laws on social media have been enacted for under-16s, to come into being 12 months from now. They have to look at different ways of doing it. Is it not time we looked at doing something similar?”
“We have always been challenged by bullying behaviour in the real world, but it has been magnified by social media platforms where individuals can anonymously harass and intimidate the target or sometimes do it as part of a group pile-on, where someone is bullied or excluded, including, unfortunately, so many incidences where young people - and I have recent examples in my constituency - have been told bluntly to harm or even kill themselves. We have had sometimes tragic results in this country. We complain about how lack of regulation has turned social media into a cesspit for adults, but for children it is worse.”
“It is not just about boys; all our children are being sent the wrong messages about how to treat one another. They all want to be on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Discord and other platforms and there is huge social media pressure - call it FOMO if you will - to be included with one's peers in the online world. Social media are having a profound impact on the mental health of young people in Ireland, linked to an increase in anxiety and depression as our young people try to compare themselves with others. There is this unrealistic lifestyle perpetuated by celebrities and influencers which can affect the most impressionable in a very bad way.”
“I was at a presentation by Haven Horizons yesterday in the audiovisual room, as were others. This domestic, sexual and gender-based violence prevention centre does wonderful work - without proper State funding, I might add, something that needs to be looked at. At the discussion afterwards, an issue I was mulling over came up, and that was the contribution that social media make to such violent and coercive activity, where young boys especially are given unfiltered access to the most misogynistic material, where Andrew Tate and the self-proclaimed Irish patriarchal patriot Andrew Tayto and other pathetic excuses for real men become, through algorithms designed to entice and excite, the substitute male role models for an online generation.”
“Somehow, they thought that sending someone from a TD's office might be too political. They were more concerned about covering themselves rather than the outcome for children. That is why we need to keep the independent operators incentivised. As with this motion, I have long supported the provision of State-owned childcare to help to address the growing deficit. We see it in many other European countries. It is widely successful in France and Sweden, for example. The aspirations in the programme for Government are welcome, but, as others have said, we need to see the terms of reference, have proper consultation with the stakeholders and get a guarantee of meaningful resources to increase the facilities overall. Separate measures are also needed to help our existing local childcare providers.”
“We need to simplify the system for smaller providers in order to keep them operational. Smaller providers are better for the community. It is the big operators that get away with the shoddy practices. Remember Giraffe Childcare, one third of whose facilities were found to be non-compliant? Well, they are at it again. I know of a mother who recently moved to Adamstown and knew very few people in the area. She needed an advocate to go with her to discuss issues relating to her child. I sent a colleague to support her at the meeting but my colleague was refused entry. She asked if they could contact senior management and they said "No, you can't go. This is political." The person was denied an advocate who has experience in this area. She had to face a group of managers and take notes about her child's situation.”
“There are staff shortages due to historic low pay, thanks, in part, to the core funding model that has limited the ability of providers to deal with rising operational costs like those relating to pay, utilities, rent and supplies, all of which have increased post-Covid. Equally bad is the overwhelming nature of the regulatory requirements and administrative tasks. In my constituency, a couple of facilities have had to close. One operator said it was because they just could not handle the administration any more. They ran a very successful, small enough facility and were happy to keep going but they could not deal with all of the administration. It was just too much. We need to protect children and make sure we have regulation, but we have to balance it out.”
“I have mentioned this on numerous occasions but I am going to mention it again. I go back to the HighScope Perry Preschool study in the US which found that for every $1 invested in quality early education in the childcare sector and in primary school there was a $7 return. In euro terms, it has the same positive impact on children's outcomes and development. It is extremely important but we do not afford it enough importance in terms of investment or consideration for the people involved in the sector. My constituency is suffering from a severe shortage of childcare places. It is a rapidly growing area that is not helped by measures that have driven small, independent childcare providers out of business.”
“Maybe we need to shout from the rooftops and give them a good kick up the arse, to be quite honest, in whatever way we can. When we have the EU Presidency, will it still be the case that the genocide is continuing and Israel is trying to exodus all the citizens of Gaza and build a new expanded Israel? Will Ireland, as holders of the EU Presidency, be saying we must take action?”
“We have never seen the likes of it. Here we are, as a European Union, twiddling our thumbs. There can be some element of understanding of the historic German shame about how that country exterminated 6 million Jews during the Second World War. However, the European Union is made up a lot more countries and they should really know better than allowing the types of conditions that have enabled and emboldened the Israelis, with the help of the US Administration, to commit these ongoing atrocities. The Irish Government has talked the good talk. When I spoke about this in the House last week, the Tánaiste again condemned what Israel is doing and said the Government will raise it at a higher level with our EU partners, etc.”
“As has been noted, the single biggest European failure has been to secure the development of peace in the Middle East. We can leave Britain in or out of the equation now in the context of Brexit. We can go back as far as the Balfour declaration or as far back as we want. The reality is that Europe is a key player in trying to foster peace and security. It has two members on the UN Security Council, albeit that body is a toothless tiger at the moment because of the intransigence of the Russians and Chinese and the unreliability of the US. Europe has failed miserably to prevent the atrocities in Gaza. We can call what has happened a multiple genocide. It was a genocide before Israel started the humanitarian aid starvation, which had been going on for 60 days last week and is at nearly 70 days now. It is absolutely horrific.”
“It is true that we have not had war among the members of the European Union, but have we stopped fighting and violence in the immediate arena? No, we failed miserably as a Union in the context of the massacres that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina not too long ago. We only partially succeeded - indeed, it could be argued we failed - in bringing our collective support to bear in strengthening our Ukrainian brothers and sisters who are fighting an existential battle against Russian aggression. Ursula von der Leyen has been consistent in calling for more European co-operation. Every European country has its own designs, plans and interests. The military powers have their specific interests and the non-aligned countries with which we share a vision have their own interests.”