EU a ‘recipe to repeat horrors of 1930s’ Dáil told in debate on Bill changing constituencies

The European Union as it is developing is a "recipe to repeat the horrors of the 1930s and the 1940s", the Dáil has heard.

Independent TD Richard Boyd Barrett pointed to the "frightening growth of far right, openly neo-Nazi parties around Europe, parading the streets and engaging in vicious racial violence and articulating the sort of obnoxious views that were articulated by the Nazis and the fascists of the 1930s and 1940s".

Mr Boyd Barrett was speaking during a debate on legislation which reduces the number of Irish MEPs from 12 to 11 and changes the composition of the constituencies for the European elections, which take place this year on May 23rd.

He said the "pretence" of democracy the European Parliament represented "belies the actuality of the EU, which is diktat from the European Central Bank and the European Commission and their pals in the IMF".

The situation unfolding in Europe was a repeat of the 1930s but in slow motion.

“We have an economic crisis, a political centre that has become completely discredited, dangerous forces of the far right beginning to emerge on the margins and widespread disaffection and disillusionment with political institutions among ordinary citizens.”

The reduction in the number of seats and changes to constituencies made the situation worse, he said.

'Functions well'
But former minister of state Lucinda Creighton said the European Parliament "functions extraordinarily well", far better than the "dysfunctional" Dáil.

“It is a place where merit actually matters,” she said. Committee chairpersons and rapporteurs on legislation and policy “will not get those jobs if they are not competent and capable of executing those tasks. As we know, that is not the case in these Houses.”

She did not believe a reduction to 11 seats automatically meant a loss of influence. “It is up to us how influential we are in the European Parliament.”

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan said the allocation of seats in the parliament was "set down in the European Council decision" last June.