EU Meetings Dail Éireann — 2026-03-26 ============================================================ Thomas Byrne (FF), Meath East I met my Polish counterpart, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Mr. Ignacy Niemczycki, in Warsaw on 13 March. This was the first of many engagements I had during my three-day St. Patrick's Day programme in Poland, which was followed with a visit to Ukraine and then to Moldova. The Secretary of State, Mr. Niemczycki, and I discussed the excellent bilateral relations between our two countries, including growing economic ties and the outstanding and wide contribution the large Polish community is making in Ireland. The Secretary of State and I had a very useful and constructive meeting where we addressed major files on the European Union agenda. We looked ahead to Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second-half of this year and we discussed our main priorities, including competitiveness, security, and European values. We also discussed the enlargement of the European Union, on which there seems to be strong momentum at the moment. The Secretary of State and I had good exchanges on competitiveness and simplification, including better regulation. There was a very welcome discussion on the importance of the rule of law. Obviously there has been a change in perception and a change in view in Poland with the change of Government there. We both welcomed the work on the European Democracy Shield, which has been brought forward by Commissioner Michael McGrath. I highlighted the Blue Star programme to the Secretary of State, which is a programme we have here in Ireland to help increase awareness of the European Union among young people in Ireland. Over the past several months, I have endeavoured to travel to each European Union capital in advance of our Presidency as part of our Presidency preparations, setting out our priorities and listening to my counterparts' concerns and perspectives. Such visits have been very valuable and are making a significant contribution to our preparations. I thank the Irish ambassador, Mr. Patrick Haughey, and his team in Poland for the excellent organisation of the visit and for the excellent regard in which they are held by the Polish system. Ambassador Haughey is very well known in Poland and he and his staff are doing an excellent job representing us in that country. --- 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/dail/2026-03-26/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:47+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-26