Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The issue of Britain’s possible exit from the European Union has been raised regularly in this Chamber by Fianna Fáil from the moment Prime Minister Cameron first promised an in-out referendum. The record of the House shows that I and Deputy Brendan Smith were consistent in calling for Ireland to adopt an active approach to the issue.

In the past year the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charlie Flanagan, has taken several important and welcome initiatives to state Ireland’s position and to indicate that we seek to be prepared for any eventuality.

The issue will soon come to a head and no one is currently capable of saying with any confidence what will be the outcome.

This is no time for the populist euroscepticism so favoured by many of our smaller parties. Ireland must be very clear on where it sees its interests and how it will react, regardless of the outcome of the referendum. Let us be very clear - Brexit would be bad for Britain, bad for Ireland, bad for Europe and, as the IMF pointed out last week, bad for the world.

The economic and political case which is being made for Brexit is simply risible. As Britain's review of European Union regulations showed, the vast majority of them are actually an aid to business and trade. They are the foundation for fair and open trade. They provide the practical foundation for the bulk of workers' rights and have been proven time and again to be the most powerful weapon available to support socially and environmentally responsible development. Member states retain the ability to shape their own destinies. The European Union enables them to maximise this sovereignty in an era where prosperity is impossible without strong international co-operation.

At the heart of the "Leave" case is an expectation regarding how the departure negotiations will proceed. This is very similar to the nonsense spoken here by our own eurosceptics when they opposed every change in Europe. The idea that Britain could leave the European Union but retain all the benefits of being a member is a profoundly dishonest argument. There is simply no way that the European Union could or should allow membership to be stripped of all practical benefits. This is where the concern for Ireland is most acute. We have a strategic national interest in having a European Union which is more dynamic and which addresses clear failings of current policies. We also have a strategic national interest in being able to have the freest possible interaction of people, trade and capital with Britain. Reconciling these interests has always been difficult. In the context of Brexit, it could rapidly become impossible. Over the years we have worked in the European Union to be constructive regarding the concerns of Britain. We have actively worked to keep the discourse respectful when others have been playing to domestic political audiences.

Clearly, Ireland must be ready for either outcome. If Britain takes the road of leaving the European Union, there will be no positive outcome. There will simply be two years of working to limit the damage. If Britain chooses to remain a member, we must move forward and end the damaging rhetoric of the past 30 years. Turning every issue into a matter of national sovereignty and the search for new and more creative ways to show one is standing up to Brussels is the direct cause of this situation. Pandering to insular and often xenophobic expressions of nationalism has led many politicians who should have known better to enhance the growth of English euroscepticism.

There are parties and Deputies in this House who subscribe to the view that the European Union is a vast neo-liberal conspiracy designed to suppress workers. As we can see in Britain, the overwhelmingly dominant voices in the "Leave" campaign are right-wing neo-liberals who claim that the European Union is a socialist conspiracy designed to destroy capitalism. It is highly instructive that the British trade union movement is strongly supporting the "Remain" case. This position has evolved dramatically over the past 40 years due to the undeniable evidence of the EU’s role in defending workers. For many, and particularly the more centrist elements of the British Conservative party, instead of taking the balanced approach of being critical but nonetheless clearly supportive of the EU, they demonised it and used it as a cheap populist applause line. If the "Remain" side is to win it should remember that pandering to scepticism has led to a vicious circle of ever-expanding aggression against the European Union. Equally, the deal reached with the British Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron, cannot be invoked to prevent the Union reforming its work to make it more effective in serving the people of Europe.

Fianna Fáil is absolutely committed to the position that Ireland must remain a committed member of the European Union no matter what happens. There is simply no credible case for suggesting that Ireland would benefit from being outside the European Union and there is a growing argument that a strengthening of the Union’s powers in certain areas would benefit Ireland.

In the past, I have raised the issue of the potential impact for the residency, welfare and other rights of Irish citizens in Britain of a "Leave" vote. Reassurances seem to have been given on this front but the full extent of them is not clear. Obviously, the position on the impact between the two jurisdictions on this island would be very serious. I welcome the fact that a paper on those issues will be circulated next week. There is no need to go into the extent to which the free movement of people and trade on this island is of benefit to all communities. The failure to move forward with more ambitious cross-Border activities in service provision and economic development represents one of the greatest missed opportunities of recent years.

I welcome that the party, which is today called Sinn Féin, will, for the first time since its foundation in 1970, be supporting a pro-European Union vote. Having opposed European Union membership, campaigned against every treaty and accused the European Union of provoking Russia to invade its neighbours, this support for the "Remain" case is clearly pragmatic, but it is welcome nonetheless. Other parties including the SDLP and Alliance have of course a lengthy and principled stance of seeking to use common European Union membership as a way of enhancing connections between both sides of the Border, as well as between communities often hostile to each other.

The Dáil should note the consistent and generous record which the European Union has in supporting peace, reconciliation and development on this island, which has not often been acknowledged by many Northern Ireland politicians. It was something I experienced in my time as Minister for Foreign Affairs. The degree to which that was just brushed aside by many senior politicians in the North was incredible, notwithstanding the very substantive contribution the PEACE moneys made to reconciliation between communities in Northern Ireland. Those in Northern Ireland supporting the "Leave" position have yet to address any of the major concerns about the economic and social impact of the possibility that the North will no longer be a member of the Union.

We held a significant seminar on Brexit, organised by Deputy Brendan Smith, in Cavan town last July. We heard some stark facts about the implications of Brexit on Northern Ireland farmers. The IFA economist, Rowena Dwyer, gave an outstanding presentation on the practical bread-and-butter implications for farmers in Northern Ireland if Britain should leave the European Union. Having heard that, it is very difficult to comprehend how any Northern politician could advocate a "Leave" position. We also heard from representatives of the Centre for Cross-Border Studies, lecturers at Queen's University and others at the seminar. The Dáil should note the consistent and generous record which the European Union has in supporting peace and economic development in the North.

Clearly, a position where the will of a majority in England on this matter is forced on other parts of the Britain and Northern Ireland has not been thought through by many of those campaigning for a "Leave" vote. There is no point served by speculating now on its impact. One thing which is for sure is that the case of Scotland’s possible membership of the European Union as an independent state will become much less complicated.

There has been some considerable speculation about actions Ireland might seek to mitigate the inevitable damage caused by a "Leave" vote. Rather than spending time on this, we should agree that we will have a dedicated session on this issue immediately after the vote. Should there be a "Leave" vote, Fianna Fáil will seek the appointment of a special committee of the House to oversee policy in the two-year period of negotiations and we will seek a number of other specific actions by Government to ensure that our interests are protected and promoted.

I have outlined in great detail my party’s approach to the reform of the European Union in a series of speeches in the Dáil and elsewhere. In addition, we set out our position on both reform and Brexit in our election manifesto. We believe Ireland must be more assertive in supporting reform which deepens the ability of the European Union to support growth and not just to control public spending. This point remains irrespective of what happens in June.

This referendum is the inevitable outcome of 30 years of a steadily worsening rhetoric in British politics whereby blaming Brussels has taken centre stage. Whatever happens, we need this to be the end of the destructive cycle and the beginning of a more sustained focus on delivering a European Union focused on the needs and aspirations of the citizens of all of our countries.

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