Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I want to address Ireland’s relationship with the EU and how this plays into that relationship. Currently I believe the biggest threat to the EU is more EU. The creep of democratic powers from nation states towards Brussels is creating great resistance in societies across the European Union. If we look back, not all of Ireland's relationship with the EU is positive and that has to be outlined. The economist Paul McCulley stated that the former Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, had a loaded gun pointed to his ear when it came to the ECB letter sent to the Irish Government in 2010. Later, the new Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, confirmed that he received a call from the then president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, blocking the imposition of burden sharing at the time. Noonan said that Trichet warned him that an economic bomb would go off in Dublin if Ireland pursued the option of imposing losses on senior bond holders. With a population of 1% of the EU total, Ireland paid 42% of the total cost of the European banking crisis. This was a cost of about €9,000 per person,according to Eurostat. We know that at times the large European states make decisions on the basis of their own national interests and at the cost of so-called other members of the European Union. At the moment legislation is coming thick and fast from the European Union. Most of it is unquestioningly rubber stamped here without any concessions to this House and much of it is flawed. The nature restoration law is an example of this. This law has been handed down to farmers with rigid targets and little detail on how it will be implemented and totally absent of the funds necessary to ensure farmers can make a living.

Another example of the drift of power from nation states is Ursula von der Leyen's plan to create a European defence union.

This would be a union that would make decisions on the basis of the needs of France and Germany but would ignore the views of the Irish people. It would be a union that would, in the medium- to long-term, expect young Irish men and women to put their lives on the line for it, but only for German and French strategic interests. If the Government thinks it would be able to influence Ursula von der Leyen, let it just look at the amount of influence it imposed on her when she strode the world stage offering Israel a blank cheque for the murderous campaign killing 37,000 people in Palestine. It is an Irish Government with no influence over Ursula von der Leyen in that regard.

Now the Government is already preparing the way for the European defence union. The Tánaiste has indicated he wants to get rid of the veto we have over military issues in the treaties and the Taoiseach has indicated he wants to get rid of the triple lock. Even the Government's attitude towards sovereignty is incredible. The Tánaiste stated that he wants nothing to do with a backward idea of sovereignty but Aontú certainly does not agree with him. We believe the sovereignty of the Irish people is really important. Decisions made here, by the people and close to the people, are better decisions so that we can hold the decision-makers to account and influence those decisions. We, like most people, are supportive of the original premise of the EU, which is as a trading partnership that works together in the interests of the nation states, and we seek a partnership of nation states working together. However, what is actually happening on a range of different issues is that the Government is ceding significant power and sovereignty to the EU.

From the very start, the Government's policy on immigration has been an absolute disaster. It is true that the Minister for Justice has been asleep at the wheel for at least four years and the only reason she has awoken is the work we, in Aontú, have done over that period. It was Aontú that found out that 85% of people who were served with deportation orders in this country never had their deportations actioned by the Government. When I asked the Minister where these people were, she replied to me in black and white that she did not know. She could not confirm whether these people had been deported. It was Aontú that found out that 5,000 people came through Dublin Airport with no travel documents last year, which again is an incredible figure. Two years ago, I asked the Minister for Justice where people were registering for asylum when they came to this State. I found it very strange that the answer given to me at the time was that 75% of people were registering for asylum at the International Protection Office on Mount Street. I felt it was odd. I imagined when people registered for asylum they would have registered at the airport or at the ferry ports. I asked the Minister how these people were coming into the country and astoundingly she said she did not know. Worse than that, she said the staff were not asking the question of the people as to how they came into the country when they attended the IPO. Logically, it seemed to me that most of the people who were registering at the IPO must be coming across the Border. Two years ago, I asked that question of the Minister and she said she did not know and that this question was not asked. I asked again last year. The answer changed. The Minister said the information could not be extracted from the data and again, at the start of this year, the answer was the same. Amazingly, a couple of months ago the Minister then admitted under pressure that 80% of the people were coming across the Border to register at the IPO. There is a very simple statement in management that says if you cannot measure, you cannot manage. This Government was not even measuring the really important statistics to help us manage this issue for the past three or four years. That has led significantly to the crisis we are in at the moment. Now, incredibly, the Government has created this new situation where it is putting checks on the Border for people coming across.

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