Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our representative for coming before the committee at this very important time. It is no harm to mark the success of the European Union and its successfully-concluded negotiations with the UK in respect of Brexit. None of us would be supportive of Brexit but it was not in our control. Michel Barnier, Guy Verhofstadt and Frans Timmermans displayed great vigour and dedication to the job in hand. They stuck with it and were supported by all the member states and we have a lesson to learn from that. Europe is going to go in the direction in which we, the European people, want it to go. If it should emerge that neonationalism, towards which there is some tendency at present, becomes the order of the day, I would be pessimistic about where we might be heading.

If we want reassurance about this, a good thing to do would be to take out our history books and carefully read about the era from 1929 or 1930 to 1945 or 1946. Recently, I read some of the records of that era and they were appalling. Man's inhumanity to man was just appalling. The European Union, which followed as a result of that, brought member states together in a way that reminded them not to go in that direction again. With the passage of time, a restlessness takes over and people begin to look at the horizon and feel their strength again. They think about the things they can do and start to believe their association with others is holding them back, and that is not a good sign.

Insofar as we can ascertain right now, the structures are in place to continue and the commitment must prevail. We would hope to see the UK back in the Union again because the Union is lesser for being without the UK. I will not quote John Donne, but the EU needs a country the size of the UK, and Europe is weaker for its absence. It may well be that everybody harks back to the good old days but we have to ask which good old days we are talking about. There is great hope for the future, provided the Union prevails and people do not take their eye off the ball and go off in a different direction. In particular, we should encourage each member state to bring to the Union something that is positive and no member state should feel it is outside the Union. We are all Europeans