Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and congratulate her. This is the first time we have been in the Chamber at the same time. I was delighted with her appointment as Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs and wish her the very best in a job I know she will do in her usual style and with great excellence. I am delighted that she is here for Europe Day.

I can say without fear of contradiction that Europe has been a universally and unequivocally good thing for Ireland. At the beginning of its political existence in the twenties, the State was very much in the shadow of Britain, adopting its currency in the beginning and fixing itself to Britain's interest rates. Right up until the establishment of the Republic, we were bound by precedents made in UK courts. Look at where we have come since then. The European Union has been a very important tool in allowing us to step out from the shadow of Britain, on which we were highly dependent economically, in terms of trade and culturally, and to be our own country, standing alone as a sovereign nation. That has been facilitated by our membership of the EU since the seventies and eighties. We have been allowed to spread our wings, diversify our dependence and extend our trade and economic links to countries within the EU and to the world. The Union deserves great credit for allowing us to do that. In an odd way, even though we were joining a group, it allowed us to establish our sovereignty in a real way. That had not existed in a real way at the time of our independence but it came into existence through our membership of the European Union and has been enhanced over years.

The European Union has always been good for Ireland. In the early years, we were obviously a net beneficiary and received money. We all remember those signs that went up when roads were being built indicating that they were partly funded by the Union. They still exist on projects throughout Ireland. Even after we have moved from being a net beneficiary to being a net contributor, we still benefit from being part of a larger group. We clearly benefited from the solidarity of our European colleagues at the time of the awful event that was Brexit. We received support from people like Michel Barnier and the other European countries that joined with us to help us minimise the effect of Brexit on the EU as a whole and particularly on Ireland because we are still closely linked to Britain through our shared history, our families and other links. We need to maintain those links but not by cutting ourselves off from Europe because we must ensure that we continue to enjoy the benefits of being part of the Union.

I am very proud of our membership of the European Union and of the European Movement Ireland figures the Minister of State quoted indicating continued very strong support for EU membership in Ireland, which run at well over 80%. We are the most pro-European country in the European Union. I am very pleased to be part of what I consider to be the most pro-European party in Irish politics, Fine Gael, which is a member of the largest party in the European Parliament, the European People's Party. That is also something we can be very proud of. I look back on the history of our party and think of great Europeans like Garret FitzGerald, who really engaged with the opportunities Europe presented for us and made the most of them through, among other things, joining the EPP. I also think of other Fine Gael leaders who have always and consistently supported the European project, its benefits for the Continent as a whole and its benefits for Ireland. Those benefits extend to every citizen and individual. I have been a beneficiary myself. I studied in France under the Erasmus programme and subsequently and separately worked and studied in France. Those opportunities that were afforded to me, which were not available to my parents' generation, are extraordinary opportunities for us to link in to a greater unit, to be part of a bigger whole and to benefit from all that comes with that.

That internationalist attitude is highly important for Ireland because, as great as this country is - and I do believe that because we have so much going for us - we are small. The notion that we should in any way isolate ourselves from the other countries on our Continent or in our economic bloc is wrong because every time we integrate more fully, we gain more and more. The more we integrate, the more we benefit from systems, trade, intelligence, shared experiences and, in the past, funding. We are never better off alone. We are always better off as part of a larger whole because of all of the might that comes with that.

That is still true today, which is why I do not understand why there are still parties in Irish politics that are essentially Eurosceptic. The largest opposition party in this Parliament, Sinn Féin, has always been Eurosceptic, has always voted against European measures and has always supported the "No" vote in referenda promoting opportunities for Ireland in the EU. I do not understand it because the European Union is a real opportunity for us to genuinely assert our sovereignty and independence and to become a functioning part of a much larger group and enjoy all of the attendant opportunities and benefits of that. While it may be softening its language in recent years because it recognises that there is more than 80% support for European membership, we know that it is Eurosceptic. When the current Sinn Féin party was founded in the early seventies, it initially suggested that becoming a member of the EU would end Irish sovereignty when, in fact, the experience has been quite the opposite.

Other parties, including parties of the left who oppose large elements of our membership of the EU, will tell us that we are getting rid of our sovereignty. It is very popular to blame Brussels when things do not go well. By the way, that is a charge that can be levelled at every party on the political spectrum. It is sometimes easier to say we have to do something because Brussels says so. Let us remember that Brussels is us and we are Brussels. We are party to the decisions made in Brussels. It is never legitimate for a national government to say that we have to do something because Brussels says so. We feed into the decision-making at Brussels at the level of the Council, the Commission and the Parliament. There is a democratic and participative element to the European Union that means we are part of all of those decisions. The more that we say things are the fault of Brussels or lay the blame on Brussels for things that are politically unpopular, the further we go down the road of what happened in Britain. It was a very popular tactic for British governments to say that Brussels says you cannot buy bent carrots or that bananas need to have a certain curve. All of this was nonsense that did not come from Brussels but it allowed those governments to insulate themselves from politically unpopular moves. The reality is that such dishonesty leads to people losing faith in Brussels and not seeing the benefits because politicians are too cowardly to outline them whether or not it is politically popular to do so.

Let us not go down the road, for example, of saying that being part of the European Union and co-operating with other members somehow cedes our neutrality. It does not. We are a neutral state. I wholeheartedly believe in our military non-alignment and want it to continue. However, I do not want it to insulate us from co-operation with other European states and steps we can take to protect ourselves. At the end of the day, as much as Deputy Coveney promoted investment in the Defence Forces and in things like radar and other simple meaures that would bulk up our capacity to defend ourselves, investment we are still waiting for and which I look forward to seeing, we are not a mighty nation when it comes to military matters. It is not okay to say that, if something happens, the Brits will step in and defend us. That is not okay. Why would we then not want to partner with our European neighbours? I am not talking about going to war. I never want to see Irish soldiers going to war. However, I am very proud of the work they do in the context of peacekeeping and co-operation with our European neighbours and I want that to continue and to be enhanced. That does not contradict our policy of military non-alignment, a policy that has done nothing but benefit this country. That policy enhances our diplomatic might on the international stage, puts us in good stead with the vast majority of countries around the world and has given us a strong record in peacekeeping with the United Nations, all of which we can be enormously proud of. Let us put a stop to those myths that there is anything bad about the European Union. Is it perfect? By no means. Is it clunky and cumbersome in some of its operations? Of course it is.Any bloc of 27 countries that needs to build a consensus is going to be clunky but it is the building of consensus that makes it so powerful - the fact that we bring all of these different traditions together. We see it even now in the context of what is happening in the Middle East. I was deeply ashamed when Ursula von der Leyen went to Tel Aviv and stood with an Israeli minister who was openly announcing that he was going to break international law and said she would stand with him. She has apologised for that but it is a demonstration of the different traditions and the different psychological histories of European countries. Of course, as a German, she has a different experience of what happened to Jewish people in Europe in the past 100 hundred years. Of course, as a post-colonial nation, we have a different understanding of what Palestinian people suffer in their adjacency to Israel. Of course, we do. Despite the fact that we have totally different perspectives on an appalling conflict and we see ours as being the correct one, we still work together. We work together on other issues and benefit both our populations through the work we do together, that co-operation and that consensus.

On this Europe Day, let us remember how much good the EU has done for Ireland, how important it is for Ireland, how important it is for Ireland's future and where we go to. Let us remember as we face into the coming weeks of ratifying the EU migration and asylum pact, how being part of a greater unit gives us greater strength and empowers us to be a greater country. As we look forward to that and to the next 74 years of being part of the EU, I welcome our Europeanness, Europe Day and our continued participation and enhanced participation in the EU.