Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The whole issue of the selection of the President of the new European Commission, the question of who will be Ireland's Commissioner and so on bring into focus the problems that are facing the European Union, or rather the crisis it is facing and on which the Taoiseach touched when he spoke of the danger of Britain pulling out. Perhaps this more generally reflects the dramatic rise of various forms of what is called euroscepticism, whether it is the defection from Fianna Fáil of Brian Crowley, the alarming and frightening growth of the far right in parts of Europe or, on a slightly more progressive plane as far as I am concerned, the growth of left-wing forces in recent elections across Europe. Such forces, coming from a different perspective, are extremely critical of Europe and of the direction in which Europe is going. Meanwhile, we have a beauty contest over personalities. It is not focusing on the policies but rather on which personalities will get the spoils.

The Taoiseach should note these two things are connected. The growing legitimacy crisis for the European Union results from ordinary citizens' perception of the Union as being undemocratic, corporate dominated and a honey pot for the political class to get exceedingly well-paid jobs to further their own careers, while ordinary people across Europe are getting hammered with costs and austerity and while democracy is being slowly eroded and undermined for ordinary citizens. That is the reality and is why what is called euroscepticism is growing. I am interested not in the personalities but in the policies. The only point I would make in passing about Jean-Claude Juncker is that his surname of Juncker is appropriate because Europe is dominated by austerity junkies and I suppose it is appropriate that a man called Juncker is taking over as President of the European Commission. However, the issue is the policies. That is what people want to know about and they seek changes in the policies in order that Europe becomes more social and more democratic.

However, all the indications are that it is moving in the opposite direction and the more it moves in that corporate, undemocratic direction, the more one will see the rise of euroscepticism and growing resistance to the European agenda. Some of that scepticism can take worrying and alarming forms in the rise of the far right. While the Taoiseach began his speech by referring to what happened in the First World War, he should think seriously about how both that war and the Second World War broke out. It was blocs vying for influence and worried solely about the pursuit of profit, territorial control, expanding territories and so on that actually led to those conflicts and, of course, ordinary people paid a terrible price for that. There are worrying signs in this regard and I will provide a few examples. As some of us stated while opposing the various treaties, it is becoming increasingly apparent that European Union state aid rules mean Ireland cannot solve the social housing crisis because the State is not allowed to borrow money to build social housing. Effectively, the State must privatise or introduce water charges at least, because European Union state aid rules preclude the State itself from borrowing money to invest in the infrastructure but instead, the State must make it profit-orientated. At every turn, EU rules are acting in an adverse way to undermine the ability of the State to protect its own strategic interests, to protect its strategic industries, to solve the social problems facing its people and at every turn are encouraging a race to the bottom for ordinary people.

The transatlantic trade and investment partnership, TTIP, is a classic example of this, whereby the Americans are insisting that as part of this deal, we must have an investor-state trade dispute mechanism that essentially would allow multinationals to sue governments that try to protect the interests of their citizens and to get around domestic law. America is demanding that this be included in the agreement. Germany and France have indicated concerns about it because it would undermine precisely the capacity of the state, in so far as it represents the citizens, to represent the interests of those citizens by protecting industries, jobs and conditions. This is what is happening and Members should consider the examples of Bausch and Lomb, Greyhound and the Cement Roadstone dispute that is under way at present. All of them are demanding 20% pay cuts and all are multinational entities. In the case of Greyhound, its owners are not even tax resident in Ireland. As Members are aware, CRH was at the centre of the Ansbacher scandal and now is up to its neck in deals with Israel and so on. The interests of multinationals are being pursued at the expense of ordinary citizens and the workers who work for those multinationals. That is what is going on.

In the final minute remaining to me, this point brings me to an important issue that is not merely about economics but about the politics of all this. One aspect of where Europe is going wrong is corporate domination in respect of the economic impact on ordinary citizens in Ireland and elsewhere. Another aspect is the complete lack of morality when it comes to foreign policy, best typified by our relationship with Israel. It is absolutely extraordinary, as Members again witness another entire series of tragedies exploding because of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and its resolute refusal to give the most basic civil rights to Palestinians. Members see the tragedies unfold again but Europe will allow Israel into the Horizon 2020 agreement, whereby we will give some of its major firms, which have been involved with building the apartheid wall and in doing all sorts of stuff for the Israeli military as it pursues its agenda of oppression in the West Bank, grant aid for research and development. It is absolutely unbelievable that we would do that. Consider the double standards when it comes to Russia. Europe jumps up and down stating it must have sanctions against Russia because of what it is doing in Ukraine. However, where are the sanctions against Israel for what it has been doing brazenly to the Palestinians for the past 20 or 25 years?

Despite its brazen behaviour, the European Union gives Israel favoured trade status and grant aid to develop the industries it is using to persecute the Palestinians. Europe does not have a future if it does not change direction and policy.

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