Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)

I thank the witnesses for coming in and producing such a well designed piece of research. It was easy to read. I used to be in that game to some degree. The poll results were generally positive. If we had 82% agreement on anything else, we would probably celebrate it. We rarely get 82% agreement in this House. It is, however, disappointing that it is the lowest score since the inauguration of the survey, albeit coming from a high level of support. It is heartening to see that the majority of Irish people are satisfied with our influence in the EU and the majority are satisfied with our co-operation on security.

Given that we are coming from a high base, one could take the drop in support as a creeping kind of dissatisfaction which I think is stoked by a number of reasons both domestic and international. Too often, some Members of these Houses use the EU as a flak jacket to blame it on unpopular decisions at national level. Unfortunately some Members, and I am not talking about the members of this committee, need to be reminded that Ireland is a member state of the EU. I should not have to say that but during the statements on Europe Day, it was too often implied for my liking that we are somehow not a member state. This probably feeds into the distrust of the institutions that comes through the document. Some Members need to be reminded that it is through our alliances with other member states that we set the rules in Europe. We are not rule-takers. This probably also feeds into the distrust in the institutions among the public. Ireland's future prosperity is fundamentally tied not just to our European Union membership but to our membership of the Single Market. It does not take a lot to go from a creeping dissatisfaction to a Farage. For those of you who can remember the early 1990s, Britain was not always Eurosceptic. You could say it was Eurocritical. There was a euphoria after the Berlin Wall came down and we were going to expand. To me, that creeping dissatisfaction fuelled by irresponsible elected members, particularly in the Tory Party, and a right-wing media that was quite happy to facilitate it, helped to facilitate Brexit.

It is a concern that 36% of 18-year-olds to 24-year-olds get their information on EU issues from TikTok is many things but a news source is not one of them. However, I do find their strong levels of support for the Union heartening. A problem with the public's view is that the things that Europe does well often go unnoticed. No one is giving out that at the minute, Ireland is being protected from the Trump tariffs by the EU. We pooled our sovereignty on trade issues, we are in a stronger position and are not as easy to pick off. This never gets spoken about. As I am generally in agreement that the EU is moving in the right direction, I am not particularly satisfied that the cordon sanitaire is breaking down within the European Parliament. That never gets talked about. One of the mainstream parties crossed the floor to vote with the ESN and the Patriots on budget amendments recently. That is of genuine concern to me. It is a bad precedent and it is never spoken about.

It is good to see the public's acknowledgement that trade and the economy are some of the strongest points the EU carries out for us. I agree with that. I would love to see more movement on the capital and savings union when we chair the Presidency next year. My contribution included more statements than questions but I appreciate the report and thank the witnesses.