Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Kathleen Funchion I thank the Chair. I thank everyone for the questions. I will try to go really fast because three minutes to answer all those is quite challenging. I agree with the comments about Shannon Airport. Part of the reason I was so anxious to run for Europe was that my region of the south east gets left behind a lot. That is the same for lots of areas of Ireland South. We need to see balanced regional development, which we try to bring to the REGI committee I referenced. It makes so much sense from so many different points of view. I would love to get into more of a discussion but I am trying to cover a number of points. On social media in relation to young people, I have two teenagers and the area of children's rights has always been of big interest to me. I feel very torn on it. I do not want to see a situation where social media companies are let off the hook. I am not sure an all-out ban is the answer, if you are just exposed to everything at the age of 16. There need to be really good discussions with the Children's Rights Alliance, CyberSafeKids and different organisations like that because algorithms and the recommender systems need to be challenged. It is something that should have a good consultation before any decisions are made in relation to it. I wanted to mention CAP and the fishing industry in my first contribution but I ran out of time. I am really concerned at the moment. Probably most of us share the view that we should be challenging to ensure that CAP is maintained and increased if possible. On the different pillars, LEADER funding comes from Pillar 2, for example. If that is eroded, what would that potentially mean for LEADER? A lot of people do not understand that and do not know that. The LEADER programme is doing unbelievable work right throughout rural Ireland. We need to keep highlighting and talking about those things. I totally agree with the comments from Senator Conor Murphy about the conference. I am 100% supportive of that. I often say that we need to look more to the expertise we have in relation to the Good Friday Agreement from all sides and push on that. I agree with the comments that Europe has not been strong enough on Palestine. We need to do an awful lot more. I am really worried about the direction we are going in terms of militarisation, for example, with cohesion funds. The WorkAbility programme helps people with an additional need or disability to potentially access employment. Programmes like that could potentially suffer. That is why it is important, if people are arguing for money and more funds towards the military, that they say where they think that should come from. Is it coming from CAP? Is it coming from the cohesion policy, for example? I agree with Senator Clonan's comments. Immigration has had a huge positive impact in this country. Any of our hospitals or our hospitality sector would collapse without people. As a nation, we have gone all over the world and know what it is like to be treated as second-class citizens. At this worrying and difficult time, it is important that we stand up and are really strong against anything that is in any way negative in relation to that. Maybe I can come back in on some of the other points. --- 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