Ms Noelle O'Connell:

Gabhaim míle buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomach. Is mór dúinn a bheith i dteannta an choiste inniu le cur i láthair a dhéanamh. Guímid gach rath ar an gcoiste maidir leis an togra fíorthábhachtach seo. I thank the Chair and members for their very kind invitation to attend to today's meeting, the purpose of which is to discuss Irish public opinion on, and engagement with, the European Union. As executive director of European Movement Ireland, I am delighted to present before the committee again. I am particularly pleased to be joined by our head of policy and advocacy, Mr. Daniel Keohane. Mr. Keohane has recently returned to Ireland after spending many years working on the Continent where he focused on a variety of policy areas, particularly defence. With his extensive experience, he will share some valuable insights into some of these topics and how Ireland is perceived by our fellow EU member states.

As members are no doubt aware, European Movement Ireland is Ireland’s longest established not-for-profit membership organisation dedicated solely to European issues, founded in 1954. We are a non-partisan, not-for-profit, membership-based organisation. Our aim is to develop the connection between Ireland and the rest of Europe and to increase awareness, understanding and debate of European issues here in Ireland.

It is a privilege and a vital part of our work programme to engage with all Members of the Oireachtas, particularly members of this committee. I congratulate the joint committee on initiating this important and timely debate of how best to engage citizens on the issue of our EU membership as well as the vital subject of alliance-building for Ireland within the European Union. These are topics which demand much more focus and attention over the coming years, particularly as we look ahead towards a European Union which does not contain our nearest neighbour, the UK, as a member state.

Through being an engaged member state, willing to regularly debate EU issues in our national Parliament as well as hearing a range of perspectives and evidence from our EU partners, there is certainly both opportunity and room for Ireland to increase our effectiveness at a broader EU level. Reasoned and robust debate as a country is crucial to enable Ireland to clarify and sophisticate our position on EU policy areas. So too, is hearing where other member states stand on the same issues. This combination will allow us to act maturely and confidently at EU level as we approach the next chapter of the EU’s history, with a new Parliament and Commission coming this year, as a union of 27 rather than 28. Such exercises are useful in identifying potential avenues for alliance-building over the coming years.

As an organisation, we continue to be very active in calling for Ireland to continue its robust engagement on the future of Europe process through supporting the work of this committee on the subject as well as working closely with the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Deputy McEntee, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to organise the Government’s citizens’ consultation process on the future of Europe and through working very closely with the offices of the European Commission and of the European Parliament offices here in Ireland on this vitally important topic.

At European Movement Ireland, we have found the process of travelling the length and breadth of the country to debate the future of Europe inspiring, invaluable, and incredibly important. From Cavan to Cork, we have gained a huge level of insight about how people in Ireland connect at a local and regional level with our EU relationship. This has also helped us as an organisation in thinking about how we can work best to communicate Europe to citizens and to ensure that debates on EU affairs here in Ireland are as inclusive and relevant to people as possible. The value of participative democracy, of going out to different towns and regions around the country, engaging with people and, crucially, listening to what they have to say, was clear.

If alliance-building is to be productive and a benefit to the Irish public, we must first endeavour to ascertain what Irish people think about the issues on which Ireland is trying to develop alliances. The process has led us to question and explore in greater detail some assumptions we might have previously held about, for example, Irish attitudes to defence co-operation, as well as reaffirming others such as Irish positivity towards remaining an active, committed and engaged member of the European Union. These are issues which we chose to explore further this year in our annual independent poll on Ireland relationship with the EU, of which members of the committee will have received a copy. With the health warning, which members of this committee will no doubt appreciate, that polls are but a snapshot of sentiment at any one time, they nonetheless serve as a useful barometer of peoples’ opinions on various issues.

We first began commissioning these polls in 2013 to coincide with Ireland holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU with the goal of ascertaining the views of people in Ireland on a range of issues concerning Irish-EU relations. Since then, Red C has been commissioned to conduct the annual Ireland and the EU poll. We have continued to ask some of the questions from the very first poll each year. This really shines a light on how the views of Irish people have evolved over time.

It has also helped us to track and annotate these views every year.

Last year’s poll showed positivity for Ireland’s EU membership at an impressive high, so it is a little unexpected but very welcome to see that support has risen yet again in 2019. A couple of weeks ago, 93% of those polled thought that Ireland should remain in the EU. This figure is consistent with other polling on Irish attitudes to Ireland remaining in the EU. For example, a Kantar poll in April this year found that 91% of Irish people would vote to remain if an in-out referendum were to be held. A Eurobarometer poll in October 2018 found that 92% of Irish people felt that the country had benefitted from EU membership. The most recent polls are all showing incredibly high figures and support for Ireland remaining in the EU, at well over 90%. Since Brexit, there has been a rise in support for the EU across many member states as some of the effects, challenges and complexities of leaving the EU become clear. In our first annual poll in 2013 support for EU membership was at 81% and, as I just mentioned, we are now at 93%. This "Brexit bounce" or "Brexit dividend", as it were, has helped to increase support for the EU across the member states, not only in Ireland. We would argue, however, that Irish support for the EU goes much deeper than Brexit. I will now pass over to my colleague, Mr. Keohane, to speak more to that point. He will also concentrate on some of the other questions explored in this year's poll, and on what its results tell us about the policy areas in which we might seek to build alliances with other like-minded member states.