Ireland is at a "critical juncture" in its relationship with the European Union, and the political classes need to re-examine the nature of the State's hitherto ad-hoc dealings with EU institutions, a leading scholar and writer on EU affairs has said.
Prof Brigid Laffan, director of the Dublin European Institute, and Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration at UCD, said fewer human resources were devoted by Ireland to managing the relationship with Brussels than by any of the small states except Luxembourg. This had led to a distinctive and unique style of policy.
It was extraordinary that so little attention had been focused on the political systems for dealing with the EU institutions after the No vote on the Treaty of Nice, she said.
Prof Laffan was speaking following the publication by the Policy Institute of her book Organising for a Changing Europe: Irish Central Government and the European Union. Launched yesterday by Mr Paul Gillespie, foreign editor of The Irish Times, it is the seventh in the Studies in Public Policy series.
Prof Laffan, who is an adviser to the Oireachtas on EU enlargement issues, said the Irish approach was to concentrate on four or five issues of key importance to itself in any set of negotiations rather than on the overall framing of policy.
The Irish system was also driven by the immediate agenda and by changes in governments and in the EU Presidency rather than by the short , medium- and long-term perspective.
The study finds a shift in perceptions of Ireland within EU institutions, with Europe taking "closer scrutiny of the Irish file" and Ireland finding it harder to get "sweeteners" in negotiations.
The study was conducted before the Nice Treaty vote.