Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

This European Union Bill cannot be passed into law without reflecting on County Donegal's unique decision to vote against the treaty on two consecutive occasions. As one of Donegal's five representatives in this House, it is my duty to put on record what I believe to be the reasons for my country's decision to vote "No" in the referendum. The 51% Donegal "No" verdict on Lisbon must be listened to by decision makers in Government, in Brussels and at North-South Ministerial Council level.

In terms of our geographical isolation, Donegal's total land border, as the Minister of State knows, is 170 km - 158 m with Northern Ireland and 12 m with Leitrim in the Republic. The vast majority of the county's perimeter is Atlantic coastline and the Lough Swilly-Lough Foyle shoreline. Our unique decision can be attributed in part to our isolation. We do not partake in the national conversation to the same extent as other counties. Our local radio station has the highest market share in the country. Significantly, a newsagent in my parish sells 225 local papers every week and 180 national papers, including Sundays. The national media's united "Yes" campaign did not have a proportionate purchase in County Donegal. The further north one goes, the greater the sense of isolation, as evidenced by the higher "No" in Donegal North-East compared to Donegal South-West.

There is a combination of factors for the protest vote. The "No" vote is a product of the anger of Donegal's marine sector and frustration with a quota system that allows Ireland to fish out of 7% of EU waters even though we own 25% of the marine territory. Our disaffection has been longer in terms of the recession. Our recession is longer and deeper and we did not have the benefit of the Celtic tiger. While the Celtic tiger was roaring in the south of the country, our young men were getting into vans on a Monday morning and driving to places such as Dublin and County Meath. We have the lowest level of disposable income per capita with 83.4% of average State income - €17,252 in Donegal as against €20,678 on average across the State.

Our dependency ratio in Donegal is 56% - 18% above the national average. A Teagasc farm income survey has shown that the average income in the north-west is €8,635 compared to €27,786 in the rest of the country. In 2002, national unemployment was 8% while in Donegal the figure was 16.6%. There are now 21,000 people unemployed.

Regarding cynicism about EU distribution, as the Minister of State is aware, TEN-T-EA was established by the European Commission and has responsibility for managing the technical and financial implementation of the trans-European transport network, TEN-T, programme. TEN-T-EA got money from the Commission to the tune of €4 million, which it spent on a cross-Border railway network between Cork and Dublin. This was by way of an application which was sold to Europe as an upgrade to the Belfast-Cork via Dublin line.

The impact of the Northern Ireland conflict in the context of the Border has afflicted Donegal economically and socially. It caused problems in all of Ulster, not just Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement has to be looked at, ten years after its ratification. It was presented to us as being about more than peace in the Six Counties. It provided for a new society and new economics across this island. As far as we are concerned, much of the cross-Border talk can be summed up by saying: "When all is said and done, there is more said than done."

Donegal is left in the wilderness, abandoned in Ulster, failed by Dublin and sometimes irrelevant in Europe. I will finish by quoting from a speech made to Seanad Éireann in 1932 on a Cumann na nGaedhael motion about the economic war that Éamon de Valera was then waging on Great Britain. A Donegal Senator bewailed the fact that the economic disharmony between the UK and the Irish State was affecting his county more severely than any other part of the Free State. On 3 August 1932, Senator John McLaughlin, an Inishowen resident who owned a shirt manufacturing business in Buncrana, told Seanad Éireann:

The people there are in the frontline trenches...An unfortunate Donegal man will hardly...see much in the wisdom of the statesmanship that tells him to depend on himself, that we should depend on the home market, and cut him off from the only market he had.

Nobody can drown the cries of the unfortunate people of Donegal who voted for Fianna Fáil, and who put them into the position as the government that cut off their best market, because no one in Ireland will feel the disastrous effects of this economic war more severely than the people of Donegal.

Suffering becomes wholly malignant when lessons are not learned from it. Some 77 years after that Buncrana Senator decried the difficulties being wreaked on County Donegal by economic divergence between Ireland and Northern Ireland, history is tragically repeating itself. There is still economic disharmony between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and Donegal people are still in the front-line trenches.

We in Donegal may come across as complainers. We are not complainers. There was a 13% swing to the "Yes" side. The result in the county was 49% "Yes" and 51% "No", but democratically it came across as a "No" vote. We have solutions to our problems at present. We did not get the Celtic tiger; we relied on the sterling market. However, with sterling strengthening we are in serious difficulty at present. There are protests and disharmony among businesses that are closing down on a daily basis. We need to provide economic solutions. There are integrated strategies that Europe can work on, including in the areas of health, transport and education. However, we need to see these operating on the ground in the north west. The strengthening of sterling is creating policy gridlock at a monetary level, but we also have policy gridlock at an economic level. We have solutions, proposals and strategies in place that will help us come out of the recession.

The 51% of people who voted "No" did so for a reason. They protested through a number of mechanisms and had a number of different reasons for voting "No". However, there was a high "No" vote because there is a protest. It is not about victimisation or feeling sorry for ourselves, but there is a harsh reality of the economics of being in the north west, stuck between the Northern Border and the Southern policy that is not working for us. We need to do something. As a representative I will be reaching out to Brussels. The debate should be measured. This is a benchmark and a watershed that should be used as leverage to get Donegal's entitlements. We are not looking for any extra. We are looking for that to which we are entitled. Perhaps Europe could be used as a better mechanism for fulfilling the policy promises that are within and integral to the Lisbon treaty.

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