Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Michael McNamara Maybe the Senator arrived late, but I addressed the issue in my previous contribution. I will not repeat what I said. On Ireland's ability to defend itself, there has been a lot of talk about what we are going to do. However, our level of investment in the Defence Forces is both incredibly low and inexcusable. That said, there is a lot of discussion about it in the Irish media. I am always quite surprised about that because I have never really met anybody – it might be different for Mr. Kelleher, Mr. Kelly, Ms Funchion or Ms Ní Mhurchú – who asked when the Irish Defence Forces were going to come over the hill. I do not think anybody in Europe really cares much about it, but it is an issue for us ourselves. There is a great deal of talk in the media about it being an embarrassment to us abroad. It is an embarrassment to us here. It is an embarrassment in the context of how we treat the members of our Defence Forces who stand by the flag and who put their lives on the line for it. At European level, I am not sure that there is much of an interest, but that does not mean we should not address it. We clearly need to do so. Senator Casey mentioned EU scrutiny. I completely agree with him. It is something that needs to be stepped up. Senator McDowell, who, unfortunately, is not here today, had something to say about it recently. I very much agree. I do not always agree with him, but I frequently do. I agree with him on the need for far greater EU scrutiny. Perhaps he and Senator Casey could get together and come up with a solution as to how it could be better scrutinised. On the von der Leyen motions, I have abstained from them because they are votes of censure on the entire Commission. It is not just von der Leyen, it is the entire Commission, including Michael McGrath and Commissioner Jørgensen, a socialist from Denmark who is doing quite a good job on energy issues. I fundamentally disagree with the direction in which von der Leyen is bringing the European Union, but tabling motion after motion is not going to achieve anything. In a way, it is just a bit of political pantomime. If we look at the results of those motions, they are not getting anywhere. I would like to see her removed though, but that is something which will require a bit more political manoeuvring than is currently happening. On enlargement, I very much commend Mr. Kelly on his honesty. It is rare to hear it from Irish representatives. I recommend that people read the conclusions document from the Council meeting on 18 December at which Ukraine was discussed. It was very clear that there will not be a departure from the standards. Ukraine has to meet the acquis of the European Union like every other aspirant applicant, and it is not in a position to meet that. It is, unfortunately, unlikely to be in a position to do so in the near future. There is also a part of that which includes the use of frozen Russian assets. I recommend that people read this as well, particularly as, in my view, the reporting of it in some normally reliable mainstream media outlets was completely erroneous. The use of Russian frozen assets is as dead as the Monty Python parrot. They are based in Belgium, and the Belgians were not having it, notwithstanding the enormous pressure that Merz and von der Leyen put them under. They resisted. It is dead unless the Belgians get a guarantee that Ireland and all other member states are not prepared to provide them with. I agree with the point about energy security. At present, our energy policy is based on importing nuclear energy from the United Kingdom and, now, from France. Both the United Kingdom and France have very ambitious plans for their own energy. We in Ireland need to grow up. Unless we cover the whole country with windmills, the idea that we can do it through wind farms alone is nonsensical unless we can develop the offshore wind sector, which is not economically viable at the moment. If it is not, then we need to look at the use of small nuclear reactors, etc. --- 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