IRISH PEOPLE have a tendency to undervalue the origins and importance of the European Union and instead focus on it simply as a source of money, Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney told a University College Cork conference at the weekend.
At the conference, aimed at young people and titled “Brussels and Us: The Big Black Hole of Democracy”, Mr Coveney said that in countries such as Germany and France you still heard people speaking passionately about the original ideals of the European Union.
“Stability, peace, a way of solving problems in the absence of conflict – that type of reason has never really been part of Ireland’s involvement in the European Union. We very much joined for economic reasons . . . We saw opportunity and we saw money.”
Mr Coveney, who is the honorary president of the government and politics society at UCC, said there was nothing wrong with such an approach, but the EU was about much more than grant aid.
Arising out of a new self-confidence during the Celtic Tiger years, many Irish people felt they did not need the European Union any more, he said, but Ireland was now viewed as a “basket case” economically.
“All of a sudden, the European Union is part of the problem and part of the solution. We need to look at how we interact with the EU, what has gone wrong and also how the European Union and its structures and the relationships we have built there can be part of Ireland’s future in a positive way.
“I passionately believe that this debate around Ireland needs to move away from Brussels. To essentially blame others for the crisis we have created ourselves is absolutely flawed thinking.”
Paul Gillespie, former foreign policy editor with The Irish Times, said European solutions that would be of greatest benefit to Ireland were not often properly articulated in the political system.
Dr Gillespie said in spite of the fact that the European Union was inherently part of our lives, it was kept at bay.
He also told students that many EU citizens saw European elections as being “second-order” type of events.