Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

As a Donegal man, I always reserve a healthy scepticism for anything European and the overall European project. I have to look at the historical context in that Donegal people voted "No" in the first Lisbon treaty referendum. By a slight margin, they also voted "No" in the second. Having had an opportunity to analyse the two referendum results at local level, one decides to examine the situation a little more closely and try to understand where we are going. With that in mind, it is very interesting to pick up on the fact that there are two groupings of political experts among the Opposition. One group revises the past, while the second, which comprises the majority, includes political experts in predicting the future. However, that is very dangerous territory when it comes to considering anything European. It is an evolving project and no one, not even me, can predict what will happen in six months time. Every time I turn on the radio or watch television people are talking about the Greek economy collapsing in six months time and Greece leaving the euro. There is an array of colourful predictions about what will happen. While it makes for interesting listening and reading, I do not think we are in a position to make predictions because of the enormity of the problems faced. Some have pointed out that a Europen project involving 17 eurozone member states and 27 EU member states probably became too big too quickly. We have to be conscious of this when we try to understand its dynamic.

Realism sets in when one is in government. It set in for me, especially having spent 12 years in opposition, which is a nice place to be. It is comfortable, open-ended-----

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