Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18
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Sharon Keogan (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I thank the MEPs for coming in here this afternoon. Time is short so I will jump right in. Regarding the EU-India trade and mobility negotiations, Ireland's Indian population rose from 59,600 to 70,000 in a single year and is on track to become the largest foreign national group in the State. As this is happening while governments claim migration is being tightened, I ask our MEPs, particularly Mr. Kelly and Mr. Kelleher because they sit on the industry, research and energy and the economic and monetary affairs committees, whether any of them raised concerns about the demographic impact on our infrastructure and social services of these mobility concessions in the EU-India deal? Do they support labour mobility being written into trade packages, "Yes" or "No", because they cannot tell the Irish people migration is being restricted while supporting expanded inflows in Brussels?
My second point concerns the recent resolution to respectively enshrine abortion as an EU fundamental right and to emphasise the full recognition of trans women as women. Regarding the former, Irish voters were repeatedly assured in the referenda on the Lisbon and Nice treaties and previous referenda that abortion would remain a national competence yet the proposed initial initiative would embed abortion access within EU-level rights architecture, so I ask the MEPs whether they accept that this contradicts what Irish voters were told? Regarding the recognition of trans women as women, can the MEPs explain what legal assessments have been carried out on the implications relating to member states whose equality, healthcare, sports, education and other frameworks rely on sex-based categories? Do they accept that enforcing recognition at EU level may breach the principle of subsidiarity by overriding national competence on how sex and gender are defined in law?
You cannot promise one thing during referendums and deliver the opposite when in Brussels.
On the Digital Services Act, Ireland hosts the European head quarters of all major platforms now under the Commission’s oversight. Across Europe, we have seen political content branded as systemic risk or disinformation. We have seen elections cancelled. I spoke about this issue last week. This is something that has been called electoral interference by the US House Judiciary Committee. What safeguards exist to make sure lawful Irish political dissent, including criticism of migration policy and other uncomfortable issues, is not algorithmically suppressed under DSA compliance pressure? Did our MEPs assess the sovereignty implications of shifting tech supervision from Dublin to Brussels?

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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