Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for coming.

It has almost become a cliché that Europe is at a crossroads, but clearly it is true for many people. A crossroads has been reached in many people's lives and they do not know what will happen in Europe in the future and how it will affect them and their families. A lot of people in Ireland are fairly critical of the failures of the European Union. They put a lot of the blame for the banking debt they have been lumped with on the EU and particularly on the failure to regulate the banking sector within the EU, as well as in Ireland. Many of the solutions that are being put forward by the EU appear to be recipes for more of the same, namely more integration and more centralisation. This is happening at a time when people have come to the view that these same policies are partially responsible for the economic collapse.

Many people were strongly in favour of the European project, particularly in terms of its potential to promote solidarity and equality. However, some of those who were critical of the EU experiment were always fearful that larger member states would come to dominate the new Europe.

Unfortunately, the forces produced out of this crisis appear to be pushing us in that direction. Larger European economies and governments are looking for greater say in the future of Europe.

The feeling in Ireland and many other countries is that we did not create this crisis. Few in Ireland benefited from the greed that caused the crisis. People in Europe are disillusioned with the lack of leadership from the European Parliament and other institutions. They do not see solutions and all they hear about is more austerity, pain and hardship.

I presume one of the reasons the witnesses are visiting Ireland is that they are interested in the views of Irish people and learning why we went down the referendum route. Do they take a view on the use of national referendums on European Union treaties? We take the view in Ireland that we have an opportunity to vote on treaties which other countries lack. Is part of the purpose of the trip to examine why countries such as Ireland hold referendums on EU treaties? Given what the witnesses have heard, do they think the current progress towards a banking and economic union will necessitate a referendum in Ireland and, perhaps, elsewhere? Are they aware of the stressful atmosphere that was prevalent among Irish voters during the recent referendum campaign? There was a definite sense that voters were not offered a choice and were being blackmailed. Is such an atmosphere conducive to the sustainability of political union in Europe? People believed they were forced to go down a particular route for fear of economic collapse.

The referendum revealed a significant class divide in how Ireland voted. A pattern was repeated across constituencies whereby those from a working class background rejected the treaty while more middle class areas voted in favour of it. Does that reflect public views across the EU? Do the results reflect the belief that the EU is increasingly associated with austerity and cuts among those who are most affected by such policies?

How do the witnesses see the EU developing in the coming years? Do they agree that many groups are using the economic crisis to push their own agendas in terms of demanding the centralisation of powers? Centralisation is a taboo subject for many people in Ireland. Rather than taking the route of centralisation we need to see more accountability through regional and national parliaments. Many people are sceptical about the social cost of austerity policies, and the longer we continue on that path, the greater the disillusionment with the European project. That is the message from polls across Europe.