Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I begin by taking ever so slight issue with my good friend and almost next-door neighbour, Senator Minihan. Ireland may well be a model of economic growth for the developing countries of Europe, but we are most assuredly not a model of development because we have singularly failed to use our affluence to develop civilised society. The models for the countries of eastern Europe are the Nordic countries with a strong social democratic tradition where they have used growth to achieve development. We have singularly failed to use growth to achieve development.

I wish to make an announcement for the record and to clear up a point. I voted "No" in every referendum on the EU, including the last Nice treaty. At that stage I was a member of a party which took a different view so I kept my views to myself. The party knew I voted "No" and I did not participate in the campaign. I will be voting "Yes" on this occasion for the first time in my adult life for two reasons.

First, contrary to what those who are arguing the "No" side will say, at this stage in Europe's development and in the process of negotiations, to reject Nice would seriously impair enlargement. Regardless of whether I like that or whether I am happy entirely with many aspects of the treaty, there is no doubting the political reality, the momentum and the extraordinary work that has been done. I was an active and constructive member of the Committee on European Affairs in the last Oireachtas even though I have always described myself as a critical Europhile. I reserve and will continue to reserve the right to be so. I wish we had more critical Europhiles in Ireland because that is what we need for serious debate. We do not need daft Euro-scepticism of the wild-eyed Bill Cash variety, but serious intelligent debate. One of the advantages this country has and one of the benefits of the first rejection of the Nice treaty is that for the first time in our history we have had a debate about our position in Europe and in the EU. That has been very good for the country and I hope my party has taken a leading role in that regard.