Mr. Dan O'Brien:

Deputy Byrne remarked that there are many uncertainties with regard to the United Kingdom issue and I agree with that fully. One thing that might happen is that the UK Labour Party could be forced to commit to a referendum as well before the next election. If that occurs then almost certainly a referendum will go ahead.

Reference was made to hard survey data on businesses and what they believe but none come to mind. Necessarily I can only discuss this impressionistically but let us consider an organisation such as the UK Institute of Directors. It tends to be more eurosceptic than the CBI, which is more akin to IBEC here. There are many individual business people who fund the United Kingdom Independence Party, UKIP, and who are vociferous in the view that Europe is the source of red tape.

One way of measuring that red tape is to look around Europe. We all have the same Single Market legislation but if we examine indices of competitiveness or economic freedom, there is considerable variety. If some countries are more competitive than others with the same legislation, then surely that legislation is not so terrible that it erodes competitiveness. Much has to do with how EU level legislation is put into force domestically and the domestic regulation and frameworks that have nothing to do with Europe. The notion that Europe causes a vast amount of anti-competitiveness does not stack up because some of the most competitive countries in the world are in Europe.

The issue of referendums was raised and in particular the question of whether we are better informed than the average citizen because we have had so many referendums. There is a biannual poll, the Eurobaromter, which asks people throughout Europe how much they know about Europe. We do not come out of it any better than others and this suggests that despite all the referendums, we generate more heat than light in referendums on EU matters.