Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is very fitting that today's statements in the Seanad and yesterday's statements in the Dáil coincide with the 50th anniversary of the week in which we held a referendum in Ireland to join the European Economic Community, EEC, as it was known at that time. We voted by 83% in favour and why would we not do so? It was a huge opportunity for us. There was also the reality that our trade with Britain was very high at that time. We were very dependent on Britain so when it decided to join the EEC, we had no option but to do so too. The same held true for Denmark at that time. After we joined, our trade diversified massively and our opportunities also diversified massively.

That high level of support for the EU in the referendum 50 years ago, at 83%, has increased or at least been maintained over the years. A survey this week found that 88% of Irish people wish to remain in the European Union, one of the highest scores in any similar surveys done across the EU. I thank European Movement Ireland for carrying out that research through Red C. The findings are in line with views expressed by citizens who have taken part in events related to the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Over the coming year the Government, through the EU50 programme, will be providing opportunities to reflect on 50 years of Irish membership of the EU and what this means. Citizens will be engaged in discussions on Ireland's place in the world. I was very happy to launch this programme with the Taoiseach at the National Archives in January, where we saw a copy of the accession treaty signed in 1972 by the then Taoiseach, Mr. Jack Lynch, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Patrick Hillery. I also went to the archives in Brussels where I saw the originals. The original signed copies of the treaties are in Rome, where the repository of the Treaty of Rome is also located.

On Monday, along with many of my ministerial colleagues and several ambassadors, I visited schools to mark Europe Day. I also hosted the Danish ambassador in Ratoath and a representative of the European Commission in Dunshaughlin. We also went to Eurofound with a number of schools. The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Hackett, hosted the Croatian ambassador on Monday. All of these events showed the knowledge, interest and enthusiasm of young people for all things European. People really do feel that they are both Irish and European.

It was a courageous decision in 1972. Indeed, it was courageous to even look to join the EEC. We had only gained our independence 50 years earlier and in terms of political parties, only Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael supported accession. Everyone else was against it. We were called sell-outs and were told that the Irish language and rural Ireland would be destroyed but the truth is that our membership has led to transformative change. I heard a Deputy in the other House complaining that the EU did not get to the regions or to the rural areas. Perhaps the Deputy never heard of the Common Agriculture Policy, CAP, or rural development funding. Up to 80% of the EU budget for decades was spent on rural areas and the rural areas of Ireland benefited disproportionately and were transformed over that time. Ironically, the EU enabled us, by supporting agriculture, to diversify from it and from our trade with Britain. Membership has brought benefits such as freedom of movement. We can live, work, and holiday in countries across the EU and we use the same currency as those member states that are in the eurozone. Of course, we should never forget the simple things that were put through like the sanitisation of mobile phone roaming costs. It is not that long ago that Irish people came back from holidays, having watched a few YouTube videos, only to find themselves with a bill for hundreds of euro. The European Union got rid of that. It is starting to creep back into Britain and one is reminded of the song line, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone". That is the situation following Brexit, as the British will discover more and more.

The Erasmus+ programme has opened up huge opportunities as well. We can live and study anywhere in Europe, an option that past generations did not have. From a university point of view, Erasmus should be at the same level as the Horizon programme. Those opportunities are equally valuable to our universities and to society. The research is different, equally valuable, but different. Universities should be giving equal status, in terms of their administrative structures, to Horizon and Erasmus+ because education is key.

We also have career opportunities in the European institutions that I am always trying to remind people about. We started an EU career strategy last year and are constantly working on that to make sure that more Irish people go to work in the EU institutions. Unfortunately, about one third of our staff will be retiring in the next three years, which is incredible and in that context, we need more Irish people to go into the institutions. They need to be encouraged as well as made to realise that demand for language skills is very high. That is a national challenge facing us all. We want to see 100 additional Irish officials placed in permanent posts in the institutions by 2030. This is really crucial but is separate from the people who are in language jobs. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy McGrath, and I met Commissioner Hahn yesterday to discuss this.

The EU is not perfect. It is a democracy of 27 countries coming around the table so we should not expect easy or quick answers. What we can expect, and what we have seen over many years, and I have given some examples already, are solutions for citizens. Almost everything the EU does is in the interests, and for the benefit, of its citizens. Almost all of the allegations about the EU warmongering and so on are simply fake news. The founding declaration of the EU is the Schuman Declaration dating from 9 May 1950. What Schuman proposed was the joining up of the coal and steel industries of France and Germany for two purposes. One was economic development and the other was to ensure that they could not physically go to war against one another if coal and steel production was merged and brought together. Coal and steel are obviously crucial for fighting a war, for making weapons. The idea that there is a military-industrial complex within the EU, although I accept that there is within individual countries, is completely false. In fact, if the EU were involved in such, we would probably have far less spending on defence but that is a debate for another day. It is not something that Ireland is taking part in at this time.

On the big issues in recent years, including Brexit, Covid-19 vaccines and the Ukraine invasion, the EU has gathered together as one and spoken with one voice for the benefit of its citizens. On climate change, the EU is the only organisation in the world where everything it does feeds into its climate change agenda. The EU brings climate into absolutely everything it does and that must be acknowledged. On Brexit, the protection of the Good Friday Agreement has been the Government's priority. An election has just happened in Northern Ireland and approximately 60% of MLAs support the protocol. I acknowledge that there are unionist concerns about it but that is exactly what the EU is trying to address in its discussions with the British Government. We want to help but we need to see an Executive formed and the protocol applied. The UK Government needs to engage constructively because while a one-sided, unilateral approach has been mentioned and the waters have been tested for it over a number of years, they have always come to the conclusion that it cannot be done. I have no doubt that will be the conclusion in this instance too but unfortunately, in the meantime, a lot of time will be wasted. We need to get with the programme now, make sure the protocol is in place, deal with the genuine concerns that exist and let Northern Ireland flourish and its economy progress. That is what we all want.

I look forward to hearing the views of Members here today and thank them for their ongoing interest in what is our European Union.