Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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It does not matter. It has been said and I think it is because we have lost our way. What do we mean by the European Union and the family of European countries?

I was first elected in 1974, a year after we joined the then Common Market. The sense of joy at feeling Irish and European was great. There was great excitement. There was a sense of pride when we held the Presidency, a sense that it was great for Ireland. That has disappeared. We now have a non-elected President. What has gone wrong with the European Union? We have lost the people. They are not interested in the various things that are happening out there in Europe. They are lost. The sooner we cop onto ourselves the better because this is not the first country to seriously consider leaving the European Union.

We joined the European Union because Britain joined. We are now left, an island in the Atlantic, separated from Europe and as time goes on we will feel lost because there is no sense of being European. I regarded myself as an Irishman first and a European and I was proud of that because I was made feel part of Europe. Now things are hived off here and there. We have even lost the concept of the free movement of people because some member states do not want people moving around Europe. When there was a crisis with people coming in from outside they closed their borders and nobody said boo to them but poor countries such as Greece took many on board.

I welcome the visit of Mr. Timmermans but it is an opportunity to be truthful with each other and to say what we feel. I am saying what I feel. I do not know whether my colleagues feel the same way. It is dissolving in front of us because of rules and regulations and funds. We were so pleased, especially as an island nation, to be part of a bigger family and to feel that we could move around freely and broaden our views. The present generation does not have the sense of excitement that we had when we joined first. The European Union as a body needs to reinvigorate itself, to bring us back to feeling European. We do not feel European. I respect the European Commission but we need a contact between the member states, the executive, which is the Commission, and the overall management, that is, the prime ministers of member states.

Maybe it was a small thing but holding the presidency was so important to Ireland and certainly it was important to me. It cost us money but it brought back a sense of pride and it connected us to Europe. That was taken and what have we got? We have a European Parliament of 780 odd people.