Mary Henry (Independent)

I thank Mr. McCartin for his eloquent and thoughtful address. I was concerned that he said the EU was still a fragile institution. This shows how important it is that we support it. He said also that the EU had guaranteed minority rights. For women here, while we were in a majority, it guaranteed rights for us such as equal pay. The stability of the European Union is important. I was interested to hear him stress the importance of subsidiarity. We are frequently inclined to blame things we do not like on Europe without remembering we have subsidiarity in the enormous number of ways we interpret EU directives. I am glad Mr. McCartin mentioned this.