Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the groups for their presentations. They have done us a great service in highlighting the environmental issues in the context of the debate on the future of Europe. I am disappointed to realise just how low a priority the environment has been given by the Commission in the debate on the future of Europe, and that is something we need to be very strong on in our final report, although we can talk about that at a later stage. There is no doubt the EU has traditionally been very good for Ireland from an environmental point of view in that it obliged us to implement much legislation that, let us face it, we would never have got around to, and it is the same in regard to social policy and so on. We must absolutely give the environment and sustainable development top priority in any discussion on the future of Europe.

I thank the witnesses for the clear and precise way in which they have presented their arguments. There is a lesson in that for all of us. I have one question. There seems to be a contradiction between promoting the economy and promoting the environment and sustainable development. That comes through in the Commission's papers and in what the witnesses have said. Does economic growth and development come at the expense of environmental protection and sustainable development? Are they mutually exclusive or is there some balance to be struck between the two?