Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to contribute to this debate on the challenges facing the European Union. From the outset it is important to state that I am supportive of what membership of the European Union has achieved for us over many years and its potential into the future. However, that is not to say it works perfectly for everyone all the time. It is important on a rolling basis that member states have a conversation as to where they can seek to make improvements where challenges exist and how it is important to move it on from there.

Having been a county councillor and a backbench Deputy and having spent a good deal of time in the constituency, I have heard many conversations on the European Union. At times the European Union is blamed for things it had nothing to do with whatsoever. It is an easy scapegoat. There are other times when one understands that there are some concerns. One basic example, and something that is parochial to Galway and Roscommon, is turf cutting. The directive was signed by the European Union many years ago. The European Union gets the blame for this but it approached the issue from an environmental perspective. While I would wish for a greater degree of flexibility on how to solve the problem, it was created in Ireland by Department officials who did not do their job correctly 13 or 14 years ago. When this conversation comes up, often it is the European Union that is blamed. While it has a part to play in it, that is simply not the case.

Given that some 75% of our legislation comes from the European Union the question is how we impose, understand and implement directives. Nothing seems to drive people crazy like directives. For some reason, to the very letter of the law as stated, we implement them without proper consultation with the people on the ground whom they will affect most. Let us take CAP reform, from which Ireland has done very well, as an example. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, and the Taoiseach did a great job negotiating it. One of the measures involved in it was a directive from the European Union that all farmers had to have their details, names and addresses and the amounts they receive from the European Union, printed and published. That is completely and utterly bonkers. There is already enough accountability and traceability in the system. Why do we have to publish every farmer's details? This is where the common sense element has been lost. While it might appear good in Brussels, it certainly does not work well on the ground. How much consultation took place before that measure was introduced? This is not an issue or a concern with accountability or transparency. That has nothing to do with it, and nobody is trying to hide anything. The relevant Department knows exactly what is coming in and going out of the country and what is going to farmers and yet we have to take this extra step. From the point of view of a rural security measure, it is completely over the top. This is one of the reasons people may become a bit more eurosceptic because they think there is no relationship whatsoever with the decisions it takes and what is implemented on the ground. If we were to do nothing else in the coming period, I suggest that directives be examined as to how they will work in practice.

Another major issue we are facing is designations of land, such as SPAs, NHAs and SACs, all over the country. All of these designations were introduced for environmental reasons. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with that. They were introduced at a time when the State had a great deal more money and the farming community bought into them. The European Union brought in the directives stating this is what it wanted. We have now entered a situation where the directives still stand on farmers' land but the money has run out. It is not acceptable for anybody, whether the European Union or the Government, to take over a person's land, promise him or her compensation for X number of years, and then withdraw the compensation, following which the value of the land is worthless to many of these people. This is what leads to much friction.

There is one other area on which I wish to concentrate, as raised by Deputy Seán Kyne, and this is the major humanitarian issue off the coast of Italy where people are trying to escape terrible situations for a better life. Our reaction in the European Union was slow but it has happened. It is incumbent on the entire Union to try to help solve this problem. However, there is a much longer term problem here also. Political stability in these countries is of paramount importance and is the reason people are leaving. We may be able to solve the problem in the short term for a few weeks but the European Union has to show some direction in helping to improve political stability in these areas. That means dealing with our trading parties or the United States and other countries who caused the political instability in the first place. While it might become a European Union problem to help solve it at a humanitarian level, there is a much longer-term issue that has not been concentrated on half enough. Why was the political instability there in the first place? Who got involved at all the wrong levels, whether it was the US or any other country? We have to be very strong and firm on the basis that the reason this is happening is because of their involvement. There is no point in coming back here in five or ten years' time when the crisis blows up again and some other dictator has taken over and is destroying half of Africa. We can ask ourselves what we did to solve the problem in the first place. It is one thing to solve the problem in the next few weeks but if we are serious as a European Union, the one thing we have to do is get involved in the political side of things. I am not talking about going to war. Who are the vested interests who are getting involved in these countries, causing the political instability that is now causing the current situation?

There is a bright future for Ireland in the European Union. The biggest challenge is happening today in Britain with the election and nobody knows what the result will be. If the Conservatives get back in to Government, there will certainly be an in-out referendum in Britain, the outcome of this would be very important to us. We will then have to have that conversation on the basis of the facts. It is my firm belief that we are better off within the European Union and I hope Britain will remain in there. Until that time comes, it is important that we set out clearly the pros and cons of what that will mean. The biggest challenge that faces us is happening today, the outcome of which will find out at the weekend.

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