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

It is important to express our solidarity with the family, community and political colleagues of Jo Cox. The murder of a public representative is a truly shocking event, particularly in a democracy, and many people were genuinely saddened and shocked by the event. The British Labour Party has lost a rising star who was passionate about politics and about issues outside purely party politics throughout her short life. She was a committed supporter of the European Union and an internationalist who had a deep commitment to people all over the world, particularly refugees from Syria and the Middle East.

While the person who murdered her appears to have been acting alone, the need for us to stand up and defend the principles for which she stood is just as strong. We must also remember that there is always a potential cost when one attacks and stigmatises public representatives as a group. The heightened and extreme rhetoric that often accompanies advocacy in a serious referendum can also create an atmosphere in which people on the margins become more extreme.

The vote this week is one of the most important referendums ever held, yet it is one in which we will have no voice. It has the potential to ensure that European democracies move forward in constructive co-operation or it could set off a vicious circle of damaging competition and empower extreme nationalism. It really is as important as that. As a mark of respect for the late Jo Cox and the decision of the two sides to suspend campaigning, I cancelled a speech and door-to-door canvass scheduled last week in Belfast. I would like to reiterate points that I intended making then and that I have made in a series of speeches and statements in recent years. In addition, my party made it clear in its election manifesto that Ireland has a direct interest in the outcome of this referendum. We must be clear on how we see the vote and on how we will react to the outcome.

The stakes for progress on this island and between these islands are huge. In the final days, everyone who has a vote should take the time to look at the fundamental issues involved and where the weight of evidence is. Quite incredibly, one of the main leaders of the "Leave" campaign has said that experts should be ignored. Michael Gove, Lord Chancellor and a long-acclaimed Tory intellectual, stated that the British people "have had enough of experts." Yes, each person has to make up his or her own mind, but to say that evidence and expertise are irrelevant is breathtakingly cynical. The simple fact is that a vote to leave the European Union would be bad for this island, bad for the United Kingdom, bad for the democratic countries of Europe and, as all international bodies have said, bad for the wider world. There is no upside to a "Leave" vote other than for the Little Englanders who think they can rescind the past 44 years and return to some illusory past idyll.

For all of its many flaws, the European Union has enabled a model of progress among nations that is unprecedented in world history. People can take this for granted if they like, but no one has produced any credible alternative way in which the immense violence and destruction of the world wars could have been overcome. The leaders of the last century who committed us to working together with mutually agreed rules and enforcement knew what they were doing. They saw how everybody standing alone would always end badly. This was not just about leaders on the continent. Look at the words of British and Irish leaders. Look at the words of Seán Lemass, who fought in the GPO in 1916, on how nations on the periphery could only promote their interests and generate prosperity through participation in a rules-based and strong European organisation.

One of the things most often missed about why the European Union exists is that it is a construction of a deeply patriotic generation. It was people who had fought and risked everything for the flags of their countries that created and built the European Union. The only people in our countries who opposed membership were those committed to an extreme ideological position. The phenomenon of countries jealously protecting every element of sovereignty, sharing nothing and rejecting international legal commitments is the very thing that caused the catastrophic conflicts of the 20th century. The patriotic generation knew this and set out a different course, and they were vindicated in every way.

This referendum is the logical outcome of 40 years of anti-European rhetoric from one group. They have been relentless in attacking the union and claiming that it is responsible for every evil in the world. They have caricatured and hyped every proposal. They have used vivid language and worked tirelessly to set up the fundamentally false idea that one can be patriotic or one can be European but one cannot be both. However, what they seem incapable of is addressing how 40 years of scare stories and predictions of the end of the nation state have been false. Go into any supermarket in Belfast, Brighton or Brussels and one will find that the bananas still have a bend in them and one is still free to choose the basic direction of one's country. The "Project Fear" being run by the "Leave" campaign and certain proprietors of London newspapers has involved talking about a tidal wave of foreigners about to land and fictional piles of money waiting to be repatriated and describing the EU as implementing Hitler’s vision. Without doubt, it is the most cynical and deceptive campaign of our times. Of course, they scream every time the economic damage of a "Leave" vote is pointed out.

I hope people will take the time to look at the positive case for a "Remain" vote in the next few days, because it is overwhelming. In terms of economics, the simple and undeniable fact is that to have high employment and living standards we have to trade. This is especially true for everyone living on an island on the edge of a continent. We need guaranteed and fair access to trade. This requires common rules so that companies cannot be artificially excluded and it requires a legal process where their rights can be enforced. Outside the European Union, this right to trade is much weaker and enforcement almost non-existent.

The investment case for being in the European Union is equally strong. Every major international company has developed a base within the European Union. European Union membership is an absolute requirement for many major job creation decisions. So far not a single major investor has said it would increase investment if the vote is to leave, while many have said the exact opposite.

The case for workers’ rights is unanswerable as well. Many of the rules which most annoy the "Leave" campaigners involve basic protections for workers. They prevent a race to the bottom and insist that core standards are protected for all. Nearly all modern protections for women in the workplace have their origins in European legislation. Europe is about trying to create high-wage jobs with decent standards. Being outside the EU pushes the pressure the other way.

In respect of the economy of this island, there is no possible positive result for a "Leave" vote. It offers at the very least enormous risk and most likely a direct, severe and permanent setback. Trade across the Border and outside the island will suffer. Jobs will suffer and pressures on wages will all be downwards. A tough period fiscally could well become an emergency if the predicted impacts on the Westminster budget happen. One is free to say this does not matter, but one is not free to say it cannot happen.

Whatever happens, we must be clear that Ireland will under no circumstance follow a "Leave" vote. The European Union is now and will continue to be a fundamental part of our identity and policies. We believe the two jurisdictions on this island are stronger working together in the European Union, but we will not sign up to the economically, socially and politically destructive anti-European Union agenda of the English anti-Europeans.

We should note the strong leadership of the Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, in the "Remain" campaign and the broad and diverse coalition of groups and parties campaigning on this side. It is also welcome that Sinn Féin has reversed its policy of opposing the EU in every vote taken in the past 44 years and that it has joined the SDLP, the Alliance Party and others in Northern Ireland on the "Remain" side. As for the political case for membership, if one wants to have any influence whatsoever, there is no alternative to working closely with others. Standing alone in glorious isolation, hoping to occasionally be allowed into a room where fundamental issues are discussed is a sure-fire way of being marginalised as a country.

Ultimately, the "Leave" case demands that one sees the European Union as a threat to one's identity. Whatever one's personal identity is, they claim that the EU is a threat to it. As I have stated, the EU is actually the direct project of a patriotic generation which wanted to secure the future for their countries and identities and end the threat of extreme nationalism. On an even more basic level, the fact is that no one else and no institution decides one's identity. One decides it one's self, in one's family, community and wider society. The issue is how we find ways of respecting each other's identities - that is, how we end the cycle of seeking supremacy over the identity of others.

A rules-based organisation, founded on co-operation and mutual respect, is the only way of achieving this in the modern world. Each country retains the fundamental ability to decide on its own successes and failures. We still make mistakes at national level and we can also spark great progress. Our future remains in our own hands. The EU is about opening up new possibilities to us.

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