Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. Much has been made of the reduction in funding and Ireland will not get as much out of it as people believe it should get. There is a sense of solidarity and a need for countries to benefit more. If we are doing well we should contribute more and take less of the benefits across the board. However, the question is whether we are doing better. Are we doing well in that context?

In terms of our recent history in Europe and how it has treated us, at the time of the bank bailout here Europe insisted that we repay the debts of its banks. There is much talk about the frugal countries that are controlling Europe insisting that they get a payback from Europe. It was their banks that gave the money to us that funded the crisis here. When everything went wallop we had to pay them back. The benefit for everybody does not appear to exist. It appears that Europe decides what happens and we go along with it. The biggest problem that we face in Ireland is that we are not willing to force our own view on the discussion or we are just willing to sit back and take whatever we get. From what I can see, everything that has developed in regard to Europe is based on what France and Germany think or on what the frugal states such as Holland and so on think. It does not appear that what Ireland thinks or its views in relation to the European discussion are important. That is a problem.

On the CAP, the Taoiseach said that the CAP funding has been maintained but maintaining it is not good enough. It is actually a reduction because maintaining it means it has not been index linked. This will become evident over the coming years. It will have a huge impact across the board. The reason the CAP is under pressure is not because of Brexit and the British leaving the European Union, as has been put out by the Government for a long time, rather it is because of the European Union's interests in development in terms of a military structure and European defence. This is evident in terms of the delivery of budgets here over the last while as well. The EU is seeking to have more effective control over the EU borders and increasing external action. We wonder what does this actually mean in terms of Europe. What this means for us should be elaborated on and discussed more in this House. The Government's response will be that we are opting out and not involving our armed forces but it is being done in our names. As far as I know we are still members of the European Union regardless of whether we actually send troops to fight on behalf of it. We are still members of the EU and we benefit from it.

Reference is made in the statement to the TEN-T networks. We hear a lot of TEN-T in the western parts of Ireland. In terms of Donegal, we see TEN-T networks from Donegal town up through the county as far as Derry. I note that €1.5 billion of the TEN-T networks will go towards military mobility needs. Basically, the road network is being strengthened and upgraded to ensure it can carry tanks to the border to further European needs. I am not suggesting that is happening in Ireland but it is happening across the rest of Europe. This is the type of areas we are putting money into. We should be very wary of this and we should be having our views heard in that regard at European level.

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