Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and reflecting on the future of the European Union. Fianna Fáil has long been an advocate of the European Union since its leadership in the accession process of 1973. Membership of the European Union has led to a social and economic transformation of this country that would have been unimaginable 100 years ago. It would not be possible for Ireland to negotiate on its own but because of the wisdom and guidance of T.K. Whitaker and the Department of Finance in 1958 in the paper on economic development and the programme that Whitaker put in place coupled with has the ability to trade with Europe and beyond under trade agreements that Europe has put in place on our behalf.

Like any institution the EU has its faults. The White Paper produced in March 2017 by the European Commission sets out the possible paths for the European Union. There are five options including: to carry on as we are; to have nothing but the Single Market; that those who want more do more, a kind of multi-track process, elements of which have been put in place by some doing less more effectively and efficiently; and doing much more together, all of which have their own challenges considering that the daily management of the EU is its own huge challenge. Brexit is a particular challenge. It is of little concern the further one goes from Ireland. One of my Fianna Fáil colleagues met a Cypriot MP who believed that Ireland was leaving as well as Britain which shows how little understanding there is on the periphery of Europe, especially in eastern Europe.

I know the Minister of State is daily involved in getting across the message of the effects of Brexit and the importance of supports from the European Union by relaxing state aid rules. The Minister of State outlined the public support for Europe in the recent opinion poll. I have been here for ten years and still find it unbelievable that we do not know how many EU directives we have to put into place. They are all done at the last minute as we saw recently with the debate on the Data Protection Bill 2018 which went on until midnight, with a deadline. I was involved in the organ donation legislation, following an EU directive, which was the first ever Act on organ donation passed by the Oireachtas. That was done by the Minister for Health in the past month without a debate at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health or in either House.Some 95% of laws that are enacted in Ireland every year are either statutory instruments or EU directives transposed by Ministers and Departments without ever being debated in this House. Only 5% of the legislation, which is 50 Bills each year, are debated in this House. There are more than 500 EU regulations and directives each year. Many directives are very good, but the Spanish said that the EU directive on organ donation was the worst transposition of an EU directive they had seen anywhere in Europe. There is a lack of systems in place.

Another issue is that when countries have concerns about EU proposals, there is an imbalance between the larger countries and the smaller countries, such as Ireland. We have to gather more support than Germany or France, for example, to stop or delay a particular proposal. Given that there is a European country at any given time coming into an election or coming out of an election and forming a government, if one added it all up one would nearly have to get all the countries that are in the middle of their democratic cycle to come on board in order to get an EU directive stopped. It is a perfect bureaucratic system of keeping the system moving forward and democracy cannot get enough countries behind a particular proposal to stop it if it is of concern to them because the country has only eight weeks to do so. It is a system that needs to be looked at. It must be a Europe of equals not a case of the big countries being able to stop the process quite easily and the smaller countries having to come together to try to stop something. We have only managed to put one concern forward in respect of corporation tax in the entire five years that the system has been in place. That will tell people how little engagement we have in stopping things that would become a problem for us down the line. That is a systems failure in the Oireachtas.

Senator Richmond was in Westminster and spoke to Members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons about Brexit and the effect it will have on Ireland. What does victory look like for a Brexiteer? I asked a Member of the House of Lords how anyone in Britain will be better off as a result of Brexit. All the economic data is that the majority of the people in Britain will be worse off. His response was that some people would feel better. That is the upside of Brexit for Britain. While they might feel better, they certain will be worse off. The concerns that people have about Europe is that when Brexit happened, instead of Europe taking a moment and saying that we need to reflect on the concerns of people in Britain, and there are concerns which are shared across Europe about too much bureaucracy, the decision makers are largely unelected and that national governments are not able to keep up with all the legislation that is coming through, which must be scrutinised and transposed properly. As a result there is disaffection, which is exploited by those who are against the idea of a closer co-operation.

If one asked people in Ireland whether they favour a federal Europe, and I know my colleague, Senator Richmond, would be against this statement, but on this side of the House we believe in a Europe of equals and a federal Europe means less power for the citizens because it will be centralised. Worryingly what we saw in the European defence proposals is that billions of euro will be spent by the armaments industry lobbying for a defence policy, and this was passed before Christmas. This is a concern and must be of concern. They did not do that because they wanted a safer Europe, they did that because they wanted to sell more guns and equipment to European countries and to put budgetary requirements on European countries to spend money on military hardware. I do not think that is a Europe that the Irish citizens want to see.

As we know it is far better project than any alternative that has not worked in Europe for millennia where nations kept fighting with each other. It is like the northern peace process, but Europe is the largest peace process and the most successful one we have seen. I hope it will continue for the benefit of all its member states and all its citizens.