THE OFFICE OF THE SPEAKER Speaker Farrugia calls on the President of Ireland

Speaker Anglu Farrugia paid a courtesy call on President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins.

President Higgins expressed his congratulations to Speaker Farrugia following his recent re-appointment as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Parliament of Malta.

Speaker Farrugia recalled the support of his Irish counterpart to his proposal in the last IPU Conference concerning the role of Parliamentarians in the war being waged by Russia against Ukraine. He noted that small Parliaments could come out with big issues. In this regard, he mentioned the part played by Malta in the United Nations when it took the lead in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the UN Convention on Climate Change. He also recalled Malta’s stand in the 1975 Helsinki Conference for the Security and Cooperation in Europe with regard to the inclusion of the Mediterranean Chapter in the Final Act.

Speaker Farrugia and President Higgins discussed issues of mutual interest, such as the formation of a Parliamentary Friendship Group between the two Parliaments.

Speaker Anglu Farrugia was accompanied by Mr Ray Scicluna, Clerk of the House; Miss Eleanor Scerri, Director International Relations, HoR; Mr Pierre Mallia, Director, HoR, and Mr Giovanni Miceli, Adviser, International Relations, HoR.

President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins was accompanied by Heather Humphreys TD, Minister for Social Protection and Minister for Rural and Community Development; Mr Joe Hackett, Secretary General, Department of Foreign Affairs; Mr Dermot Woods, Assistant Secretary General, Department of the Taoiseach; Mr George Burke, Deputy Secretary General to the President; Ms Claire Power, Adviser to the President, and Patrick Duffy, Ambassador of Ireland to Malta.

Source: Office of the Prime Minister