In the view of Official Ireland, our membership of the European Union is an unalloyed good, purely benefitting the country in every way, and the foundation of a collegial and harmonious relationship where mutual interests are shared and national interests protected.
A great deal of time, effort and money goes into ensuring middle-Ireland remain loyal fans of the EU, especially after the fright Brussels got in referenda on the Nice and Lisbon treaties, which were, of course, promptly overturned by running a second vote and using both carrot and stick.
The European Commission’s website helpfully lists all the ways in which membership has been thoroughly marvellous, leading with the claim that “joining the EU is undoubtedly the most significant step the country has taken on its journey as an independent nation” – and adding that “almost every aspect of Irish life has improved”.
Gosh, it all sounds amazing, though no mention is made of the sacrifice of our fishing rights and our sovereignty, or of the cost to our farmers of deals like Mercoser which benefit other countries such as Germany, or of EU law superseding our own.
Likewise, the EU’s role in forcing Ireland to bail out foreign bondholders in the global financial crash of 2010, ramping up the total €64 billion bailout cost to us taxpayers which we have been paying for since through the USC taken from our wages, is coyly thus described:
As experienced during the economic crisis in 2010, Ireland’s economic growth is vulnerable to global economic turmoil. Being a Member State helped Ireland recover from the crisis.
Its an insight into how, in the real world and when things get tough, the EU puts the interests of the larger states first – and is also well able to spin any detrimental, even disastrous, effects for countries like Ireland. Truth be told, this is not a union of equals and, this week, those with the real power at the EU table showed how little the Irish government matters.
Firstly, there is the ongoing, all-important negotiations on trade tariffs, a matter of the utmost significance for Ireland since we are so heavily reliant on the U.S. market. The EU Commission is drawing up its own list of goods imported from the US which will be hit with tariffs if a deal can’t be reached with Donald Trump’s team.
Irish whiskey makers are particularly concerned that Trump’s proposed 200% tariff on alcohol imports would effectively wipe out what had been a thriving production sector in this country, and they wanted American bourbon taken off the EU list of goods to which the bloc would apply tariffs to avoid the feared U.S. retaliation.
Micheál Martin said in April that he had gone to Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the EU Commission and raised concerns on the potential inclusion of bourbon and dairy on the proposed list of European Union countermeasures. “I am pleased that the concerns of Ireland were fully taken into account,” he said.
Obviously they weren’t, because lo and behold, as reported by the Independent:
The Irish aviation and whiskey sectors are bracing for the impact of tit-for-tat tariffs after bourbon whiskey and Boeing aircraft were included on a list of US goods to be hit with tariffs in the event that negotiations with the Trump administration fail.
It wasn’t just whiskey makers either, the EU wants to whack a tariff on Boeing aircraft, a move that would affect the aircraft leasing sector in Ireland, which manages €300bn in assets and employs thousand of people – and impact Ryanair which has orders in with Boeing worth €30bn between now and 2034.
Then there’s medical devices made in Ireland and, of course, the really big one where we are very exposed – pharmaceuticals – which Tánaiste Simon Harris said is a sector that is “critically important” for both our economy and that of the U.S.
But the key difference is that the U.S. can and will put its economy and its people first in all negotiations. We are going cap in hand to ask the EU Commission to do the same.
They gave us their answer this week. We’re not a priority. And we have a Taoiseach who is deluded about how much the EU cares about Ireland.
Secondly, there’s the very understandable furore yesterday about the European Commission deciding to throw Irish farmers “under the bus” with their plans to slash the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget by 22% – though given that the budget set to be slashed from €387 billion in the current budget period to €300 billion for 2028–2034, that’s more like a reduction of 30% when inflation is factored in.
Worse still, given that so much of what Ireland receives from the EU is in CAP payment a move which some estimates signal could see Irish farm income fall by more than 40%. You don’t need to be an economist or a policy expert to see that this would be an unmitigated disaster. In case you’re thinking that we shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds us, Ireland is a net contributor to the EU. In 2023, we contributed €3.69 billion and EU gave €2.26 billion back in investment to Ireland.
Slashing the CAP budget impacts farmers across the EU – but a much higher percentage of the Irish workforce are involved in agriculture than in, say, Germany and France. But we’re not important enough to the Commission for that to be a factor.
The Commission site says that “Ireland’s membership of the European Union has greatly facilitated its transformation from an antiquated, agriculturally dependent economy to one largely driven by hi-tech industry and global exports”. Apart from the questionable – and fairly insulting – use of the word ‘antiquated’, there’s a clue to the Commission’s attitude towards agriculture in that comment.
The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association, Denis Drennan, told Agriland today that the CAP plans could raise real risks in regard to the EU’s ability to feed itself.
“We’ve had many promises from the Commission on CAP on support and simplification. None have been kept. Today’s announcement simply underlines the slide into irrelevance. The EU can no longer even pretend to be an asset to farmers, it’s an obstacle, a negative, that causes more problems than it provides solutions,” Drennan said.
He is now calling on the Taoiseach to “immediately signal Ireland’s rejection” of the Commission’s proposals and has urged Irish MEPs to do the same.
The problem there, of course, is that the Taoiseach can signal and protest all he likes, as can our small handful of MEPs, where we have just 14 out of 720. But the people with the real power don’t seem to be listening.
Thirdly, this week the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, warned that an expected ruling from the EU’s highest court – the ECJ – will likely give newly arrived asylum seekers more rights than homeless people in Ireland.
Speaking at the Institute of International and European Affairs, the Minister said that: “asylum seekers will soon be entitled to damages from the State for failing to provide them with accommodation, while homeless people will have no such right,” according to the Irish Times.
The court appears likely to rule that asylum seekers have a right to damages if the State fails to provide accommodation on their arrival, as has happened in thousands of instances recently.
Such a decision would be “very hard to justify” to Irish citizens and other member states, the Minister said.
The Minister was referring to a case brought by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission on behalf of two people who came here claiming asylum and who were left sleeping rough after the State was unable to provide them with beds. Most asylum applicants are actually economic migrants, but once an application is made those in the system are treated as asylum seekers.
Last April, an adviser to the ECJ published an opinion saying that Ireland “cannot use force majeure to justify failure to provide basic needs for international protection applicants”.
Even where there is “a large influx of people” – the defence Ireland had offered – who are making asylum applications, “member States cannot invoke force majeure to avoid responsibility for providing adequate reception conditions or compensating for harm caused”.
We are looking at a situation then, where the EU will force the taxpayer – you and me – to compensate likely largely bogus asylum seekers who we are unable to house because of a severe housing crisis, which is being caused in considerable part, of course, by immigration.
The ECJ ruling didn’t happen this week obviously, but the Minister seems to think its a foregone conclusion, because it is.
A bad week, all in all, then for Ireland in the EU. Three instances in just a few days where we were reminded that in the larger scheme of things, the Irish government – and therefore Ireland – is unimportant to those who hold the reins of power in the EU. They treat us with contempt when it suits them.