Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also thank Dr. Day for her very comprehensive presentation. While I do not want to turn this room into an echo chamber by agreeing with Dr. Day, it must be said that I do agree with pretty much everything she said. I will make a number of points in response to her remarks and then ask a few questions.

One of the areas that is very much lacking is the level of parliamentary and inter-parliamentary engagement. Some of us are lucky to get the opportunity every six months to travel to the COSAC meetings but outside of that arena there are limited opportunities for domestic politicians, both Deputies and Senators, as distinct from MEPs, to engage. The introduction of direct elections and the abolition of the dual mandate for the European Parliament means that MEPs meet as members of the European Parliament, which is great but domestic parliamentarians do not engage very much with their European counterparts. I am talking here about engaging on a sectoral basis. Rather than just having COSAC meetings every six months, there should be an agricultural, finance or justice version, bringing all those committees together and shadowing the relevant European Council meetings. I was fortunate to spend just over two years on the Committee of the Regions and one of the best elements of that work was that we were dealing with domestic politicians and making comparisons in terms of what works. That was subsidiarity in action in terms of taking European policies to the member states.

I agree with Dr. Day about the need for increasing the presence of Irish diplomats across Europe, particularly within our permanent representation in Brussels. It was a real shame that we reduced the numbers after the 2013 Presidency and then had to build those numbers back up. That said, we have many excellent people over there, which has been very evident over the last two and a half years. We really need to expand our key embassies. One of the greatest achievements during the crisis years was keeping all the embassies open but we now need to increase embassy staff numbers and the numbers of people from State agencies like Enterprise Ireland and Bord Bia who are based in Europe. There is also a need for additional consular outreach. We need to augment our embassies as well as our existing consular network. I am thinking in particular of the consulate in Edinburgh, the recently reopened consulate in Cardiff as well as the planned consulate for northern England which will open within the next 12 months. There is another consulate coming on stream in Germany and there is talk of opening one in southern France but there is significant scope for expansion across the EU, particularly in the context of European cities that are similar in size to Irish cities.

Dr. Day made reference to her generation of Irish European officials and said that we are losing so many good people.

I know they are not being replaced and there will be a huge gap there. One of the reasons I left Brussels in 2007 was that Dublin was a lot more attractive to come back to than it was 25 years ago. Something that puts off a lot of people is the scare of the concours and of admission into the institutions themselves. We see a lot of people working in the private sector in Brussels or in agency-related work who are unwilling to go into the Commission. It is not money or conditions that turns them off, it is the linguistics. Much emphasis is rightly put on the status of the Irish language but I have fears about the number of people in the institutions who will have a command of English as a first language after Brexit. Increasingly, we see English as the working language of the EU whereas previously it was French. Can anything be done in terms of a derogation to prioritise native English speakers in a European context, possibly by giving them exemptions in the concours or preferential status? There are only so many Maltese and Irish citizens. Many of the British European officials over the past 15 or 20 years were on secondment from Departments as opposed to coming through the direct admission system. There needs to be a level of flexibility that possibly has not been there before.

There are two aspects of citizens' engagement that are critical. The European Commission is brilliant at informing the people on how they can complain about the EU and, unfortunately, this allows many of the myths to continue, particularly in the tabloid media. If we have to read one more article about blue passports and straight bananas we will all go a bit mad but it does resonate. Perhaps we need to be a little more abrasive and counter the myths. Perhaps the European Commission or, to be honest, domestic politicians, need to be a bit more direct in championing all the good that Europe has done over the past more than 60 years. I am not just talking about mobile phone roaming but the really deep things that my generation take for granted. We can go all the way back to peace if we want. The European Commission and the European institutions as a whole could be a lot more aggressive in selling the narrative and taking on the absolute ridiculousness that is presented.

With regard to engagement, a concept alien to this country but perhaps not to others is the spitzenkandidat. It worked well at the previous European elections. I am happily contributing to the campaign of Manfred Weber for these European elections. It is not a system that we, in Ireland, necessarily appreciate because we do not use the list system. I am sure it would require direct treaty change but potentially we could directly elect the Commission President, with confines such as guaranteeing nomination by a political group or a mass number of European citizens. People would have to go into the voting booth and put a No. 1 or an X beside their choice of candidate rather than it being indirect. We do not have the list system in this country and no one knows that Manfred Weber will be the top of the Fine Gael list on 24 May. It would probably mean voters would get half a dozen ballot papers this time, given the other elections that will be happening and the referendum being held on the same day, but we need to familiarise ourselves with it. It might also force political groups to narrow it down to one candidate. This is a challenge I put to my colleagues.

These are a few ideas and suggestions on which I would love to get the opinion of Dr. Day. I have more specific questions on the nature of alliances. Dr. Day touched on some of these. How best can we approach these natural alliances? Is it in a sectoral manner? We know Ireland and France have always worked hand in glove when it comes to agricultural policy and the CAP. Would it be an ideological approach when it comes to monetary policy, now that Ireland sees itself far more as northern European? Dr. Day spoke about the New Hanseatic League. Is it geographic? The UK was our closest neighbour and it was obvious to link up with it beyond policy but it will not be there so it really does fall on us to increase our engagement with the Benelux countries and possibly some of the others that are simply closer to home.

Dr. Day mentioned at length the smaller member states. How can we prioritise what policy we can identify with? The policies of Luxembourg differ drastically from those of Estonia. Does she mean any smaller state? With which smaller state should we identify and in which areas? We do not need to be rigid. Just because we are an ally of one country on one issue does not mean we cannot be an ally of another country on another issue. The most important alliance I believe, and it is a political alliance as much as anything else, is the alliance against euroscepticism and how best can we come together and take on the populists on the hard left and the hard right, some of whom are in governments. This is the biggest challenge. The most important alliance is bringing together countries, be they part of the European movement for more than 60 years or since 2013, and state we want this peace process and movement to continue. How do we build this alliance and solidify it? Unfortunately, for too long we have probably taken that alliance for granted and I say this against domestic politicians. It has been too easy for too long to blame Brussels. We need to take responsibility for our own actions. We need to triumph initiatives and ideas that come from a European level and we need to give them the level of support and credit they deserve. Equally, we cannot simply use the perceived foreign bogeyman as somehow being responsible for all our ills. Of all alliances, this is the most important to build up. I would welcome Dr. Day's opinions on this.