Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I am glad to have an opportunity to say a few words on this Bill. I have listened with interest to the wide-ranging views of speakers over the past half-hour, and one of the messages that comes through clearly is the need to maintain a substantive debate on the future of Europe and Ireland's place in Europe. This is a specific Bill, but the ongoing project of European development needs a significant degree of political input from us. Here in this House of the Oireachtas, the space should be available for us to have a rolling debate on the European project. Senator Colm Burke has been pressing strongly, as Senators know, to have the various EU directives and proposed legislation debated here in the House. That is a subject worthy of consideration.

Senator Healy Eames talked about the next step for Europe. I welcome the fact that our Croatian friends are here as they take another step towards becoming a member of the family of Europe. The steps that Europe will have to take - we do not have time to go into them this evening - will be brave and possibly lengthy. One might say it will be very difficult, but when we cast our minds back to the Europe of 1973, when Ireland entered the then European Economic Community on 1 January, we can see the tremendous changes that have occurred over the past 40 years. It is possible that we will see similar dramatic progress over the next decade or so.

In 1973, Croatia, from a geopolitical perspective, no longer existed as a country. It was behind the awful line that divided Europe, the Iron Curtain, where hundreds of millions lived under a Soviet system or, from the point of view of the Croatians, the slightly less austere but still dictatorial rule of Marshal Tito. All of that changed when the Berlin Wall fell and Europe came together. Is it not impossible for the same sort of generosity of spirit and courage to present itself again and for us to take the necessary steps into the future to ensure that Europe, regardless of how we term it from a political perspective, will unify itself in even greater fashion and ensure ongoing peace and progress? We should not be afraid of the future or the steps we may have to take, because we need only look to where we have come from to see how much more peaceful and progressive Europe now is.

I was interested in the comments of the previous speaker, Senator Mullen, about the various directives.

Sometimes, we wonder what we need from Europe. In recognising what Europe has given us, we should ask what we can give to Europe. Although it will not be billions of euro, we can offer a certain life and social philosophy. There was a time when Ireland's only exports were its missionaries. Those days are long gone, but we can export to the EU, the Continent and beyond a life philosophy in which a general respect for young and old, born and unborn, is sacrosanct. We can sell this strong Irish statement to the Continent. We must not keep this asset, but expand upon it.

That the House has had two substantive debates on the EU, its mechanisms and future today shows that we are not bound in a fearful sense to Europe, but how we must interact with the politics and structures of Europe daily. More building is necessary, but we should not be fearful. Consider from where we have come. The EU used to be the European Coal and Steel Community, ECSC. Less than one century ago, the peoples of this Continent were spilling one another's blood in two world wars. Notwithstanding the financial, banking and political crisis, we remain a continent at peace. We can be proud and look forward with confidence to a fine future for Ireland in Europe.