Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-27 ============================================================ Joe O'Reilly (FG), Labour Panel I join Senator O'Loughlin in welcoming our MEPs to the Chamber. I am particularly personally proud that when I was Leas-Chathaoirleach of the Seanad I initiated this process and chaired initial meetings with the MEPs here, working alongside our Cathaoirleach at that time. It was a great initiative and it is clearly bearing fruit and today is another example of that. I want to say very unpatronisingly and genuinely that we are extremely well served by all five of them representing our region. They are doing that with a high level of competence and commitment and we can be very proud of that. That is so important to us. I do not know how these things are measured but according to all stated metrics, about 70% of the decisions that impact our lives daily here in Ireland have their genesis or origin in Europe. That makes the quality and the commitment of the people we have in the European Parliament paramount. That is why the MEPs' performances today are reassuring. Like Senator O'Loughlin, I start with the Common Agricultural Policy. We have 80,000 livestock, beef and sheep, farmers in this country on low incomes, and any threat to the CAP is a threat to their actual existence and their families' existence. I also take the point, well made by a number of the MEPs, about the need for retention and for succession opportunity. First, how realistic is it that they can hold the line on the CAP? It is good that we have two lead negotiators here, but how realistic is that? Second, could they be specific about a farm retirement scheme? I have always been a great advocate of that. I noticed that when the pension did exist some years ago in Ireland, it was an enormous success. I would be grateful if they would elaborate on the potential for that. How would that specifically come about? How could Europe be a focus there? Ms Carberry and others referred to the peace process funding. That is important. I would just like specifics on that. Do they think it is threatened? If it is, what can be done to stop that? We had a new phenomenon in recent times in Ireland, and that is job losses. We had not had that for a number of years. That is within Meta, obviously. AI is a threat, so I would like the MEPs to comment in their responses on how we can get postgraduate education in artificial intelligence and master's degrees in artificial intelligence going, how we can maximise the opportunity of artificial intelligence and how we can create the jobs from it to replace the jobs it will undo. I think that would be of extraordinary interest to all of us to hear about. Mr. Mullooly earlier was autobiographical and I will be autobiographical too. I am not embarrassed to say that I lived in the Ireland before the EU. I have lived longer, I hasten to add, in the Ireland post the EU, lest there be any ambiguity. I have lived a long time but I did live a lot of my early teenage years before the EU and I know that the EU has been transformative for women and for livelihoods and that the Single Market has had an enormous impact on jobs. For that reason, jobs in AI are critical, but jobs in alternative energy and green energy are critical too. My question or my challenge to the MEPs, or my comment here, is that we need a greater visible lead for Europe in the creation of jobs in the green energy sector and in the creation of jobs in the AI sector. In other words, we need, as society changes, to change and roll with that. I notice that my time is going but I will just say that today is a great day's work. I am very proud of how all this, this interaction between our MEPs and the Seanad, has involved. It is an important interaction and I hope it will continue. I look forward to the MEPs responses and look forward to our meeting regularly over the coming few years - three years, we hope. --- 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/2026-05-27/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:00+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-27