Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending here today. As a number of other people have said, it is of major importance to Ireland not just from a practical point of view but also from an emotional point of view in that the UK is our closest neighbour and we have a very significant and extensive shared history. Let us say the euro continues to be under severe pressure and eventually collapses following the exit of the UK. Might this scenario suit Ireland better? Might it suit Ireland to move with the UK out of the EU?

In the paper furnished by Mr. Zuleeg, he said that there is a high level of distrust of the EU among British policy makers and a tendency for disengagement, they are inflexible and their demands are unilateral and are constantly backed by the threat of exit. Even if the Brexit referendum does not pass, to what extent will the UK effectively continue with one foot in and one foot out of the EU? To what extent can this process be reversed even if a referendum is not successful?

Who cares? Who among the member states really actively wants the UK to remain given that the speakers make the point that it will actually weaken German power within the EU? Many countries might not find that to be such a disadvantage.

In respect of contagion, the UK is a significant player in the European economy. It is my understanding, although I may be wrong, that a significant portion of European countries trade mostly within Europe unlike Ireland which has more trade outside the EU. Who needs who more here? Does the UK economy need Europe or does Europe need the UK economy as a market? If the UK economy is more important to Europe than the other way around, might we end up in a situation where the UK has all the access to the market but none of the costs? If that was to happen, what impact might it have on the future of the Union as a free trade union, which was one of the founding principles of the EU?

The speakers mentioned that a British exit would strengthen the power of the euro countries. Might that not strengthen the euro and be more beneficial in the longer run? A question was posed about whether a reform package could be positive for all 28 members. Why did we not do it before now? It leads to the question that a reform package that would be negotiated by the UK would be more likely to be negative around matters such as social protection and ideas like a common European minimum wage and be more negative towards a social Europe than towards an economic Europe. Perhaps I am wrong here.

Do the speakers think a British exit would move the UK more towards an Atlantic axis in terms of foreign policy? I know they said it would weaken overall EU political strength in the world as a whole but is there any way in which it might encourage Europe to move more strongly towards a common foreign policy platform?