Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-23 ============================================================ Aodhán Ó Ríordáin I will touch on as many issues as I possibly can. In terms of trade agreements, they must be on the basis of human rights and international law. They must be on the basis of consumer rights, protecting consumer rights, workers' rights and environmental protections and we need trade agreements in order for the European Union to survive. We are in a very hostile environment with the United States of America openly waging a trade war and a tariff war against us. Agreements are important but they have to be on the basis of what I have said. On homelessness, there is any amount of things we could do. We have mentioned what the Affordable Housing Act is hoping to do. I would like to see the MFF provide direct funding for housing first for approved housing bodies. A lot of what we are doing, though, at European level, assumes that we have strong local government. The Minister, I am glad to say, last week accepted that we do not. I would like to see a much stronger mayoralty system in Ireland similar to what we have in Limerick. A directly-elected mayor for Dublin would be something that the Government should move on to facilitate having that civic leadership over a period, which is much more important than a ceremonial mayor because there is an assumption across the European member states when you are talking about housing that the mayors can drive the agenda and that is not the case in Ireland. That is a change that the Government should take on. As for why we have issues, our tenant rights are not as strong as the mainstream norm in the European member states and when you have weaker tenant rights and greater powers of eviction, you have higher levels of homelessness. It is a bit like collective bargaining. We had the employment committee here in Dublin and they were a bit horrified at the relatively weak collective bargaining rights you have in Ireland, which leads to a higher proportion of workers in low pay. It used be the case that addiction drove people into homelessness. Now homelessness is driving people into addiction. It has gone completely the other way around. In fairness to my colleagues in the European Parliament, we are in different groups and we have different ideologies but we do not have the level of disagreement, I might say, in terms of what MEPs in other member states have when it comes to delivering on homelessness and housing our people. We all can fundamentally agree on that. In terms of food security, I absolutely agree with what has been said. Ó thaobh labhairt na Gaeilge de, déanaim mo dhícheall chomh minic agus is féidir liom. Le bheith féaráilte, tá an Feisire Ní Mhurchú chun cinn ó thaobh stádas agus úsáid na Gaeilge de i bParlaimint na hEorpa. Déanaim mo dhícheall chomh minic agus is féidir. Uaireanta, cuireann sé iontas ar mo chomhghleacaithe go bhfuil ár dteanga féin againn in Éirinn. Uaireanta, ceapann siad nach bhfuil i gceist leis an nGaeilge ach an bealach a n-úsáidtear an Béarla in Éirinn. Tá sé go maith gur féidir linn ár dteanga náisiúnta a úsáid. On a united Ireland, that is a vibrant discussion. Mr. Andrews and I are on a panel this evening in Belfast on what that means for membership of the European Union. In my own case, in the S and D group, what I have facilitated is that the SDLP, even though the North of Ireland is no longer a member of the European Union because the UK has left, now has observer status within my own party group meetings. It is a small gesture but it is important for that facility for Northern politicians to be in and around the European Parliament. We are serious, though, about maximising the rights that Irish citizens have who have a birthright of EU citizenship on the basis that they were born in the North of Ireland and the representation for them and at least observer status for Northern politicians is something we need to take seriously. On security, to be honest, we need to have a very mature conversation on where Ireland stands in the world. We are no longer the poor man of Europe happy to be in the room. We were 50 years ago. It is not like that any more. We are the sixth highest contributor to the European Union. We are the second highest per capita . We are taken seriously and we need to maximise that seriousness and that leadership when it comes to big existential, difficult and uncomfortable questions on Ireland and our nationhood and the threats that are facing us to the east and to the west. That means that the exceptionalism that we used to wallow in to a degree will be challenged and we have to mature enough to have conversations within our own citizenry about those challenges. As ever, we are always proud to be European. Membership of the European Union has done more for our nationhood and for our citizens than probably any other decision that was made over the past 100 years. --- 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