Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Conor Murphy (SF), Industrial and Commercial Panel Gabhaim buíochas leis an Cathaoirleach. I offer some sympathy by the points made by my colleague behind me, Senator Clonan. Cuirim fáilte roimh na finnéithe go dtí an Seanad inniu. So many issues have been raised by all five of them it would be impossible in the less than three minutes I have left to address them. I want to focus on one issue in particular, namely, the opportunity that arises to us in the latter end of this year in terms of the EU Presidency. Europe is going through a phase of some of the most significant challenges since the original six members got together to create European institutions. The context in which we will inherit the Presidency is one of increasing conflict and uncertainty. There is conflict in Europe in Ukraine, in the Middle East in Gaza and the actions of the Israeli state there and threatened conflict across the globe including actions in Latin America and other areas. It is also in the context of the international rules order being set aside and international organisations that we look to support peace and democracy are being pushed to one side. With that is the rise of a far-right ideology. The question is what is Ireland’s story for the six-month Presidency? What will be our contribution to try to bring some sanity to all that insanity not only to the EU but to the world as well? That is clearly through the peace we have established and developed in Ireland under the Good Friday Agreement on principles of dialogue, democracy, equality, protection of human rights, cultural rights and other rights, particularly for minority populations. There is an opportunity, which I suggested to the Minister of State with responsibility for the EU at our meeting yesterday, to host an international parliamentary conference over the course of the Presidency in relation to the peace process in Ireland, how it was developed, the principles which underpinned it and what its lessons are for the world in the current context. The EU was heavily involved in that right through from its contribution to peace. It did so financially, through its support for the institutions of the peace process and through our Brexit process, which threatened the hard-won peace in Ireland. It moved very clearly with the Government in this State to ensure that the British Government’s reckless approach to Brexit was curbed to protect the peace process in Ireland and by the provision it put that in the event of reunification, which is a growing conversation here, Ireland as a full state would automatically secure EU rights. There is an opportunity here. I would like to hear from our guests their support for the idea of an international parliamentary conference in Ireland over the course of the EU Presidency to address those issues with international focus not just from Europe but across the world on Ireland. What is the message of Ireland to the world at this time of great uncertainty and conflict? We have a homegrown story to tell people in support of that. --- 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