Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Kathleen Funchion I thank the Cathaoirleach. This is a really good idea. Ever since being elected to the European Parliament and in the run-up to that campaign, one of the things that I noticed was that sometimes people feel left out and a bit excluded. They may not fully understand what happens in Europe and feel disconnected from it. However, as the Cathaoirleach said, a huge amount of our legislation originates there. It is really important that there is a connection between the work we are doing, the work done in the Dáil and in the Seanad, and I would say the work the local authorities do as well. It is good to have this opportunity. We obviously have a very exciting time coming up too in relation to the Irish Presidency. I will speak a little about the committees I am on and a little bit about things that I would like to see potentially happening during the Irish Presidency. I will be happy to do my best to answer questions; that is probably the best way of putting it. I am on a number of committees such as the committee on regional development, REGI; the committee on employment rights, EMPL; and then the FEMM committee around gender equality and women's rights. It is important. We see a changing world and a changing environment and solidarity and cohesion between communities and countries is more important than ever before. We have the Presidency, as has been said and we have a good opportunity to make our mark. It is a six-month window. I would like to see an emphasis on Irish unity. It is a good opportunity for us. We often talk about the Good Friday Agreement and the potential opportunity for border polls and referendums but we need to plan for all of that. None of that is going to happen overnight or without a plan and we need to bring everybody with us on that process. I regularly talk about the fact that I would like to see a citizens' assembly but we should be looking to use the EU Presidency to highlight that situation, to highlight the benefits of a united Ireland and of bringing everybody on that journey. We also need to look at what I see, unfortunately, as the increased militarisation of the EU. It seems to be creeping into everything we are working on and every report we speak about. I mentioned some of the committees I am on. For example, we are working on a report regarding carers, that is, people who work in the paid carer industry but also people who are unpaid carers in the home and we are working on a report in relation to the gender pension gap. We see at times some groupings trying to put reference to defence and militarisation into these reports, which is something that would not have been seen in the past. As a neutral country, it is important that we are really strong on this. We have a unique position in the world and it is really important that the funds and the really good programmes we have coming from Europe are held and are not potentially sold out to any kind of militarisation situation. The EMPL committee is one I mentioned. One of the examples I gave throughout the campaign when I was running for Europe as someone who worked in the trade union movement previously was that we got a huge amount of our really good, strong workers' rights legislation from Europe, particularly around gender equality. I always use those examples. For now, the EMPL committee is holding strong on a lot of that but there is the danger when we see other influences with a different agenda that the workers' rights agenda might be eroded. It is important that we are really strong on this and we continue to campaign on all of those matters. I acknowledge that there need to be supports for small and medium businesses and the huge pressure on these as well. Cynthia Ní Mhurchú will be glad to hear I also want to mention the Irish language. I am not a Gaeilgeoir by nature but I have been making a bit of an effort in trying to use our language. I have given myself the task of having at least one speech per month as Gaeilge in Strasbourg. Unlike the institutions here, they are very strict on the one to one-and-a-half minute speeches. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-18