An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-01 ============================================================ Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel I want to acknowledge and congratulate Cricket Ireland. Over the weekend it had absolutely fantastic success, with three huge wins. It will be remembered in Irish cricketing history. The Irish men beat India and the Irish women had their first win in the T20 world cup. It is a fantastic achievement. The big three sports are well supported but it shows that it is important to support and invest in smaller sports like that, so I acknowledge Cricket Ireland’s success. I also want to acknowledge today is the first day of Ireland’s EU Presidency. It is an important opportunity for Ireland to secure its interests at a European level. Up to €400 million is set to be spent on this Presidency. That is many times more than what was spent by the last two Presidency countries combined. That might well be worth the cost if the Government delivers real results but, unfortunately, there have been quite clear signs from Ministers that Ireland intends only to be an EU functionary rather than using this rare opportunity to advance specific Irish interests. We should be using this Presidency to put Irish unity back on the agenda in Brussels and we should be convening a summit to examine reunification, push for representation of Irish citizens in the North within EU institutions and advancing support for unity at the Council level. We should also be leading an effort to scrap the EU-Israel Association Agreement and push for EU recognition of Palestine and for sanctions to be placed on illegal Israeli settlements. Concerns also exist regarding our approach to competitiveness and neutrality with this Presidency. The EU is pushing for deregulation as a means of increasing competitiveness and stimulating economic growth. I fully accept that economic growth is urgently needed but deregulation that comes at the cost of workers is not a step forward. Separately, I am very concerned about the defensive aspects of this Presidency. Yesterday, it was revealed that a French warship will be operating just off the coast of Ireland as part of the security arrangements for EU events in Dublin. This is very questionable on a legal level given that the Constitution clearly prohibits maintaining foreign military forces within our border. Ireland should not be in a position that we are relying on NATO for basic security purposes. The lack of preparation and investment by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in our Defence Forces has unfortunately made this a reality. If this is the trend for the next six months it will have very grave effects on our neutrality. It is very important for the Minister for foreign affairs to clarify this issue and state whether Ireland is entering into a de facto military alliance for the duration of the Presidency. The European Presidency offers a huge opportunity and we have to grasp it. We should not be seen as just a back-up band for Ursula von der Leyen and militarisation. --- 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/2026-07-01/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-01