Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-27 ============================================================ Joe Flaherty (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach I welcome all of the MEPs. In particular, I welcome my former neighbour, Mr. Mullooly, MEP. He is a native of County Longford and he is following a long tradition in this House. The MEP could see the house of the late Paddy Belton across the fields from where he grew up. Mr. Belton was a Fianna Fáil Deputy in the First Dáil, an eminently intelligent man. Subsequently, he became a member of the Fine Gael Party but we cannot account for that. I am also delighted to welcome him and to see that the MEP's sisters, Rose and Eithne, his wife, Angela, and members of his team, Pat O'Rourke and Brid Reilly, were here today. Most of them have now left the Chamber. I do not think it was because they did not want to wait for me. I think it was because they were bogged down with European speak. I only have one request. In the aftermath of Ireland moving forward on the occupied territories Bill yesterday, there is an onus on MEPs. We can achieve very little as a country. We are small, but we have a powerful voice and we have been the foremost country in Europe on Palestine. We led from the start. We were the first European country to recognise Palestine as a state. We have defended the United Nations Relief Works Agency, UNRWA, and its funding and we have been a strong voice. Every legitimate government agency in the Middle East will attest that Ireland has led the way. There is a huge onus on MEPs. Mr. Mullooly said he spoke to President von der Leyen, but he needs to bring the same commitment to this cause. This is the defining cause of our age. It is one thing to talk to President von der Leyen, but the MEPs need to engage with their groups. We are coming into the Irish EU Presidency and it would be great if we could get mid-way through that Presidency and see Europe respond as a single voice to everything that is happening in the Middle East. I will also talk about the issue of school lunches. I am sure the MEPs are aware there are at least four significant school lunch companies in County Longford, which can all attest to where their food comes from. We spend more than €350 million----- --- 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