Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to touch briefly on our relationship with the European Union, particularly the fact that we appear to have an inferiority complex. Provided we can abuse the patronage we are given to make appointments to the European Commission, we do pretty much what we are told by the Commission elsewhere. The last time I debated this issue in the House we were about to appoint a Commissioner. It has happened since. I deplore the fact that we parachuted someone into that position whose primary qualification was that he had political loyalty to the Taoiseach, as well as saving his bacon while he was in opposition. Like Deputy Micheál Martin, I applaud the activities of the MEPs Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan and Nessa Childers, as well as others from whatever quarter, who opposed former Deputy Phil Hogan’s ascent to the commissionership. It was right that they should be talking to a domestic audience, exposing the fact that this post was used exclusively by all Governments as the prime prize of political patronage.

It is symbolic the way the country is run domestically and when it has the ability to place people in plum jobs in the European Union. We do it here with judges and gardaí and in semi-State bodies and elsewhere. The prize job in the European Union is always taken by someone with a political allegiance to the party in power. It has little to do with his or her qualifications to be a Commissioner. His or her actual job is not considered before he or she is appointed either. It is right that those Irish MEPs, from all political backgrounds, should highlight that this is the way it is done in Ireland and that they oppose it. They are doing the nation a service by exposing it in the European Union and at home.

It is a great pity that the Taoiseach who has done the European Union’s bidding so loyally and faithfully, bowing and scraping to the crowned heads of Europe, was not beating the table in recent weeks when the French and the Italians tried to cheat the deficit targets with which we had been so compliant. It is well known that member states’ individual budgets must be passed by the Commission. The first attempt by the French - France is the second largest economy in Europe - and the Italians - Italy is the third largest - to do so saw them cheat on their deficit targets to which they were committed. The French blatantly said they would breach the deficit to percentage economic output target, while the Italians said they would breach the structural deficit target. What happened then was that the bureaucrats in the Commission, as well as the Germans, became a bit iffy. The two eyeballed them back and, as they are such large nations, they were not told they would have to pay the penalty but to come back with slightly revised and doctored budgets. Contrast this with the case of Ireland which bends over backwards to beat the targets or get well within them. This, of course, exposes the fact that as a small country Ireland is treated differently from the larger countries.

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