Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government has adopted a paper on the multi-annual financial framework. It was brought to Cabinet by the Tánaiste and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform about two weeks ago. The paper adopted by the Government was very much in line with views expressed in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. We indicated that we would be willing to increase our contribution to the budget but we have not said by how much. We have said that we would prefer to stick with the GNI* based system of making contributions to the budget; we are not enthusiasts for new European-wide taxes or sources of funding. We need to be very cautious about that as it may lead to a whole series of EU-wide taxes that we or the public might not support.

In the context of the spend, our view is that we should continue to fund well programmes that we believe work well, such as those relating to the Common Agricultural Policy and to Structural Funds. These programmes include INTERREG, PEACE II, ERASMUS, Horizon 2020, research and development, etc. If we are to continue to fund them well in the absence of the UK, we will need new money. I invite parties to publish papers on the multi-annual financial framework, MFF.

With regard to Deputy Burton's comment, I would not like us to get sucked into a very narrow view of net contributors and net beneficiaries. This is the kind of talk we hear from Eurosceptics - especially those in Britain and other places - to the effect that a country is paying this much in and getting that much out. That is a very narrow view of European Union membership. It is not just about what a member state pays into the budget and what it gets out in programmes. The real value of EU membership is intangible. It is about the four freedoms, the freedom of movement of people, labour, capital and free trade. These intangible benefits are enormous. It disappoints me when I see that type of thinking entering our debate. As Ireland moves from being a net beneficiary to being a net contributor, we need to ensure that we do not get into that kind of argument as put across by Eurosceptics all the time.

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