Michael McGrath

Look, I had 25 years in Irish politics at local and national level.

I started really young.

My first election in my local town council area in Passage West in Cork was at the age of 22.

So I really enjoyed it.

I had fantastic experience.

But I'm delighted to be where I am and to have the opportunity to shape and influence policy across 27 countries, including Ireland, and 450 million.

It's an extraordinary privilege.

And a year and a half in, it's been a very steep learning curve.

I've thoroughly enjoyed it and got to grips with the mechanics and the workings of the different EU institutions.

And finding out how to actually influence and have an impact on policy.

I think we all have an obligation to be very careful about what we say in the European Union.

I think we can be proud of the fact overall that we do have a Charter of Fundamental Rights that applies to everybody living in the European Union.

And one of those fundamental rights is non-discrimination and the importance of upholding the integrity of every human being, the decency and dignity of every human being.

And I think it's important that all of us do our best every day to uphold those values, because it's when we start speaking about an entire group of people based on race or colour or ethnicity, it's a very slippery slope.

And I think we have to avoid language that is divisive and that can be divisive.

interpreted a certain way, even if that's not the intention.

And I don't believe for a moment that Bertie Hearn is racist.

I just don't believe that.

I've known him a long time, but he clearly shouldn't have said what he said.

Whether he actually believed it, you know, I don't know.