Europe Day: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-07
============================================================

Mark Daly (CC), Administrative Panel

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and I thank the Senators for being here. Europe Day is 9 May and in the Seanad we take a particular interest in Europe. We celebrate the national days of all of our European Union partners by inviting their ambassadors and representatives from their embassies to the Seanad to mark their national days in the same way as they mark ours. The Minister of State has often attended our EU scrutiny and transparency committee in the Seanad, which is unique in that it looks at legislation coming out of Europe that is added to by Departments and then signed into law. The scrutiny of this is something identified in various reports of Seanad reform and we have implemented it.
Europe is a shining example of a long-running peace process. Europe played a part in our peace process in the North and is a mechanism for people to come together to discuss their differences. I will mark Europe Day by mentioning John Hume, who was a member of the European Parliament and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work. He said:
Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace – respect for diversity.
On this note from John Hume, who served in the European Parliament, I welcome the Minister of State to the House.

---

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/2026-05-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:54+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-07