Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-23 ============================================================ Regina Doherty To follow on from what Mr. Andrews said on the MFF negotiations and international aid, we have seen how the actions of the US Government have nearly given permission to other European countries to do something similar. Mr. Andrews spoke about how values make up one of the pillars of our Presidency. It is in here where we have an opportunity to show what we really do value. We recognise how many children are still dying from malnutrition in Africa alone and it is on our watch. I understand that CAP, cohesion and defence spending are really important. Everything is really important but there is nothing as intrinsically important as making sure a child does not die from starvation in 2026. That part of the values we purport to hold as Irish citizens and humans has to be shown in the walk we walk, not just the talk we talk. It is true in these negotiations for the MFF budget. In response to Senator Clifford-Lee, I could not be happier when I saw Shane Halpin, who grows 12 million cucumbers every year. He is a gorgeous young man and a real testament to the wonderful growing and initiatives in north County Dublin. The Senator is right that most of the time, people do not think there are any farmers in Dublin. There are plenty of farmers in Dublin with plenty of voices when they have issues. I wish Shane Halpin well. Notwithstanding the fact that we are not on an equal level in Europe with regard to the Irish language yet, there are lots of opportunities for Irish-speaking jobs in Europe. Anybody who wants to know about this just has to contact us and we will be happy to help them. Senator Cathal Byrne is right. Enda did ensure that what would happen with a united Ireland if and when it ever happens - please God in my lifetime - we would obviously immediately join the 27 member states. To that end, we can see PEACEPLUS, which is the co-operation and a very large fund of €1 billion shared between the EU, the UK, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, will make sure we maintain the relationships, the peace and the growth and development of opportunity and co-operation with each other in the North of the island. That is really important. I never knew anything about security and defence before I came to the Seanad but I have learned an awful lot in the past two years. The one thing I am really cognisant of is the fact that despite the fact we are increasing our defence spend, which is obvious, it is not at a rate that anybody thinks is really fruitful or is happy about. Regarding the reputation Ireland has because of our laggard approach over the past number of years, there are some quite strong feelings about it. I felt sorry for Kaja Kallas when she was here a couple of weeks ago because she had to field that defence from an Irish perspective when she has no part or act in it. The only defence I can make to colleagues when I am talking to them is that when I was first elected here in 2011, we could not have decided to spend money on defence and security as opposed to keeping the lights on, social insurance and the social welfare budget - all of the things that needed to be done at the time the IMF was here and was controlling our purse strings. I know that since then the country has been very lucky and is very wealthy, but there always seems to be something more pressing on which to spend our money. That is the only way I can balance that. We are not anywhere close to even being in the middle of the class. We need to move our grades right up to the top. In response to Senator McCarthy, something that really is a conversation within the European Union at present is homelessness. One of the recommendations from the report we did a number of months ago were around making sure that the housing first policy was enacted in every member state. Second and more importantly - it obviously has not been enacted yet - is to ensure that any child who is living in a rented accommodation cannot be evicted and, therefore, put into homelessness. It would be instructive if the latter was something that came as part of the simplification agenda that we will have after Christmas. As for something about even looking after the welfare of the children to make sure they do not go into poverty and into homelessness, even in my own party, I have considerable rows with people over the €20 billion child guarantee. I vote for it every time. I vote against my own party most of the time. I cannot understand, even from the logic of people who are pro-business and pro-European, those who do not see the value in looking after the future generations today to make sure that they will be the workers and the pension payers of the future. We need to rebalance that conversation. We need to look after our children to make sure that they never get themselves into vulnerable positions and some of the recommendations that we have in the housing report will do that. --- 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/2026-09-23/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-23