Ms Noelle O'Connell:

I thank the Chairman and committee members for the opportunity to make a presentation today as part of the Oireachtas Europe week activities. I am the executive director of European Movement Ireland. As members may be aware, our organisation was founded in 1954 to develop the connection between Ireland and Europe. Europe week and Europe day on Saturday are a little bit like Christmas for us - the busiest week of the year. I congratulate the committee on today's initiative. It is an opportune time for us to assess sentiment and public attitudes towards our relationship with Europe. I may have drawn the short straw in following all the excellent presentations; I have a lot of statistics in my address and apologise in advance if it is like death by statistics so soon after lunch. I hope the members will bear with me none the less.

With an impressive 71% turnout, the accession to the European Community referendum was ratified by 83% of the Irish electorate in 1972. In general, our 40-year membership of the EU has been well received and, as was touched upon in some of the earlier presentations, is widely recognised as having been a key enabler in modernising both our economy and our wider society. That said, the past several years were most difficult as the global financial crisis impacted in Ireland with full force. When Ireland exited the external financial assistance programme, commonly known as the troika programme, in December 2013, we were the first programme country to do so. The most recent recession experience has certainly influenced public opinion of and sentiment towards the EU, as it has across the Union and particularly in southern Europe. From 2007, Irish people’s trust in the EU had generally been in decline. To gauge our current attitude, I will refer to some of the most recent opinion polling data which indicate that, notwithstanding many challenges, we continue to retain a positive view of our membership of the EU.

In January 2013 at the start of the 7th Irish EU Presidency, European Movement Ireland commissioned Red C to ascertain Irish people’s views on Irish-EU relations. More than 1,000 people were sampled and the independent poll results were encouraging. They indicated that 85% believed Ireland should remain part of the European Union, while 83% believed Ireland has benefited from membership overall. Just 29% believed that Ireland should leave the EU if the UK decided to do so with only 25% agreeing that Ireland should leave the euro currency. Although that poll took place in January 2013 this last point is of relevance today, the day of the UK general election. Regardless of the decision the UK takes as the term BrExit enters everyday parlance, it was encouraging to see that only 29% believed Ireland should leave the EU if the UK did so.

Eurobarometer No. 82 from November 2014 has returned the most encouraging and most recent results to date. To assess public attitudes towards the EU, Eurobarometer assigned two variables, namely, ‘trust in the EU’ and ‘image of the EU’. Prior to the global financial crisis and subsequent EU-IMF programme, trust in the EU was generally high in Ireland. However, after the first year of the EU-IMF programme distrust in the EU had increased significantly from 39% to 60%. Indeed, during the years 2010 to 2013, public opinion cooled somewhat towards the EU. As trust levels dropped, fewer and fewer Irish people held a positive image of the EU, although Ireland was by no means an outlier in this respect. As of November 2014, trust levels appeared to be on the rise again in Ireland, with 37% of people surveyed saying they now trusted the EU. This is the highest recorded level since the lows of the 2011 crisis. Like trust levels, Irish people’s positive image of the EU had also been in decline in recent years from the previous high levels. The results suggest that a more positive view of the EU is returning with 53% saying they have a positive image of the EU, up 12 points since spring 2014 and 16 points since 2013. Indeed, last November’s Eurobarometer report represents the highest levels of people in Ireland holding a positive image of the EU since 2009.

According to the latest KBC Ireland-ESRI consumer sentiment index, Irish consumer confidence increased in April 2015 to 98.7%. Interestingly, we can see that as growth has returned to Ireland, so too has a more positive attitude towards the EU, albeit in a more measured manner. Similarly, the Eurobarometer report indicated that Irish optimism about the future of the EU rose from 58% in May 2012 to 78% in November 2014, which was the highest across all 28 member states and was set against an EU average of 56%. However, we also need to take on board the fact that 53% of Irish people disagreed with the statement that their voice in the EU counts. This is something Ms Ryan, Ms Gayson and Ms Coady touched upon in their presentations. Clearly much more work needs to be done.

The decline of trust in the EU is not solely tied to growth rates and economic indicators but is more deeply rooted. To fully reverse any downward trends in public opinion, the EU must continue to improve the way in which it interacts and does business with its citizens. In Ireland, the recent upswing in sentiment does not mean that we can be complacent about our future relationship with the EU. It has often been said that national governments are quick to claim credit for any positive news that might originate from the EU while being just as quick to blame Brussels for any bad news or restrictions. It is a difficult balancing act which colours public perception of the EU’s role in people’s daily lives. In turn the EU, its various institutions and elected representatives need to strive to engage with all citizens to improve the results I have outlined in our own poll and the Eurobarometer survey.