Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I agree with Professor O'Brennan but there are two points I would like to add. As regards getting a foothold in Brussels one can always improve their language while there. The availability of language courses in Brussels, be they French or whatever else, is something there is unfortunately a sense of distance from. That it is an exotic option and unless one is going over fluent in French or German it is just not within them. However, traineeships not only within the institutions but beyond the institutions are far more accessible and having English as a mother tongue makes someone a desirable candidate. That is something we do not talk about. We talk about it in a commercial sense how we are the only native English-speaking country left in the EU.

On languages there are two issues I am wary of and Professor O'Brennan alluded to them without speaking to them directly. It is about learning from the mistakes of the UK experience in the EU whereby careers in Brussels were deemed as not attractive for a lot longer and there was a drop-off. They sought to plug the gaps first through secondments from their own civil service and, second, through tapping into their diaspora, for the want of a better word such as people who happened to have a British passport but who grew up in Germany, a mixed heritage family or people who grew up in the European school system and how that weakened their general impact quite clearly in the European Commission. Would there be a concern that might be something that was seen as an easy solution? Professor O'Brennan talked about people from slightly newer Irish communities who have language skills, which is brilliant, but I am talking about people that have never had a connection to Ireland but happen to qualify for an Irish passport, and we will add them to our numbers and it will bump them up, and it looks better on paper but does not address the issue of influence.

Second, placing someone on secondment for a two to three-year opportunity, which is a great opportunity for them, but they will not commit a 40-year career to a European civil service. Those are two things that clearly happened with the British experience in the EU and I am very concerned that is an easy approach to massage the numbers. How can we avoid the temptation to do that?