Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-15-Speech-4-241"
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"en.20010215.11.4-241"2
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"I want to thank Parliament for debating this issue. I encouraged Mr von Wogau to table this question because I believed that Parliament would treat this important precedent in a fair and balanced way – and indeed it has. Furthermore, I recognise that everything discussed in the Commission was in secret and everything discussed in the Council was in secret. And we had to accept the press releases from the propagandists when it was all over. So, at least in this House we have an open and democratic airing of the whole subject, and I welcome that very much.
One thing we speakers from Ireland forgot to say was how much the European Union has contributed to the success we have. I do not want to go into all the details, but I want to mention one factor that is underestimated, which is the way that the Irish economy – being small and open – responded to the internal market. It is no coincidence that Ireland took off the day that borders were abolished in Europe and we got a free market. That was important.
Another thing that is exaggerated is the transfers of money. A Commission study, when Ireland had an economic growth rate of 10%, showed that the transfer of structural funds to Ireland only contributed 1.5%, if that. So the people who say that Ireland has grown on handouts from Europe are exaggerating.
What disappoints me about all this is the shock expressed by the Irish finance minister. He was told this by the Irish Economic and Social Research Institute, just as the Commission told him. He was told it by the Irish employers' association. He was told it by the central banks. And if he had a problem with it – with the trade unions demanding increased wages – it was because his policies had already stoked inflation and had already undermined their real incomes. Even if we were not in the Union and in Monetary Union, we would still be affected by the decisions taken by the European Union. In that sense, there is no such thing as sovereignty for a small, open economy like Ireland.
The minister is reputed to be a sportsman. A sportsman should have obeyed the referee when he blew the whistle when somebody broke the rules. Even if there is room for argument about whether the Commission was right or wrong, for our minister in his arrogance and our Tanaiste to pretend that they could not accept or understand that was dishonest and unfair."@en1
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