Some communities who were excluded from the benefits of recent developments are falling further behind. There are major issues to be addressed in the areas of equality, healthcare and disability. Environmental issues are not being addressed adequately. Social exclusion is still the lived experience of large numbers of people. I could go on and on.
Citizenship is about more than having a passport and the right to vote.
It is also about having social, economic and cultural rights which have been badly neglected at a national level as we sought to build up the economy. These same rights have been neglected at an EU level as primacy was given to a series of major economic projects focused on building a union which would eliminate the prospect of war emerging in Western Europe again. At the EU level failure to promote some of these rights is now beginning to be addressed. At a national level Ireland now has the potential to underpin the development of these rights. The right to participate in the cultural life and heritage of their community and wider society.