Visit to the European Parliament in Brussels!

On the 9th of June 2026, a delegation from ATD Forth World Ireland met the Irish MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and his team at the European Parliament in Brussels. 

The meeting marked a crucial opportunity for people experiencing poverty to speak directly to lawmakers about the harsh realities of socio-economic discrimination, homelessness and systemic barriers in Ireland and across the EU. As Paul (ATD Ireland) said it is “not nice to have someone else speaking on our behalf”.

Here are some key takeaways from our discussion:

“Nothing about Us Without Us”

A central theme of the meeting was the absolute necessity of people with lived experience of poverty speaking on their own behalf.

MEP Ó Ríordáin agreed with what Paul said. He noted a positive shift within the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Fighting Against Poverty toward prioritising direct, lived-experience testimony. 

Breaking down Structural Barriers and the “Poverty Penalty”

The delegation raised several critical, everyday barriers that affect people in poverty excluding them from basic services

  • The Identity Catch-22: Many peple experience homelessness in Ireland cannot open a bank account becuase they cannot afford a passport (€90). Without a passport, they have no accepted ID and without a bank account escaping poverty is nearly impossible. 
  • The Pre-Pay Meter Penalty: The delegation highlighted how the poorest families are charged more: electricity costs more per unit for those who pay using a meter than for those
    who pay by bill.
  • Severe Service Delays: Delegates detailed waiting up to an hour on Dublin’s homeless telephone help-lines and end up a month just to get an initial meeting with the Dublin City Council homeless service 
  • Disability and accessibility Righits: Christina (ATD) shared her powerful personal experience on how Ireland treats people with disability, in particular wheelchair users. Ó Ríordáin noted that Ireland lags behind some other EU countries in its approach to those with disabilities. Just looking at employmnet rate of people with disability, it can be remarked that in Ireland it is around 32%, compared to avarage 51% in other EU countries. 

Key Campaigns And Policy Battles 

The meeting touched major issues with EU-level legislative efforts:

  • The “Add the Tenth” Campaign: Jimmy (ATD) highlighted the push to make socio-economic status the 10th official ground of discrimination under Irish law. 
  • Child Poverty Fund: the Intergroup is pushing for a €20 billion EU Child Poverty Fund.
  • New Youth Guarantee: Efforts are underway to restart a tough guarantee program in Dublin to ensure 18-years-old have assured pathways into training, education or employment 

The meeting concluded not only with words, but with plans for future collaboration:

  • We discussed a follow-up action to tackle the ID/banking barrier.

  • UN Day for the Eradication of Poverty: Ó Ríordáin and his team were invited to the Dublin Commemoration of the UN Day for the Eradication of Poverty. 

  • The ATD Ireland delegation were made of upcoming EU consultations around poverty. 

Here we have some photos of our ATD activists during the meeting 

The meeting ended with expressions of thanks from both sides and with group photographs.

After the meeting, the group took visited the Human Rights and Poverty Stone (in the picture), and took some time to pay homage to ATD activist Séamus Neville who recently passed away.

We then had lunch with some of the team in the ATD Belgium office and had an opportunity to get to know each other. 

We then took a visit to the House of European History museum. 

Thank you to Aodhán and his team for taking the time to meet with us!  Thank you to the Department of Foreign Affairs ‘Communicating Europe Initiative’ for funding this project and this visit to Brussels.