Pat Rabbitte yesterday made a strong appeal to Britain to “remain central” to the European Union when he addressed a gathering of Irish and British parliamentarians in Letterkenny.
The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources warned that the developing economic relationship between Ireland and Britain would be challenged if Britain’s relationship with Europe changed.
Continuing membership of the EU was a matter for British politicians and voters, he told the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly meeting. “But the issue also concerns our shared future. The Irish Government has made no secret of its view that the EU is stronger with Britain as part of it. We want to see the UK remain – and remain central – to the European Union,” he said.
“Like all member states, the UK gains from its membership of the union: it also makes a valued contribution and, I believe, the EU is stronger for having it on board.”
Established in 1990 as a link between the Houses of the Oireachtas and the Houses of Parliament, the assembly now includes members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, as well as representatives from the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey.
The theme of the gathering yesterday and today is: Energy across Borders – Delivering the Economic Opportunities.
During a question and answer session, Mr Rabbitte said nuclear energy would not be generated in Ireland but the State had no objection to importing such energy.
“We have a habit of accommodating ourselves to legislation that facilitates the use of the neighbouring island for matters that we don’t want to deal with here,” he said to laughter.
Nuclear energy
Independent Senator John Crown said it would be unwise to “unscientifically blind ourselves” to nuclear energy. Consideration should be given to the facts it was “clean” and “relatively abundant”, while the downside was the perception of its safety.
Mr Rabbitte said Ireland had to exploit its indigenous renewable energy sources. Expert advice suggested Ireland had the capability to achieve its national targets for renewable electricity from onshore renewable generation alone, with capacity to spare.
“This means that there is potential for projects of scale onshore that are aimed at export markets. It also means that our offshore wind resource can be developed as an export opportunity.”
Speaking to reporters afterwards about talks on a new Croke Park agreement, Mr Rabbitte said the Government had been “even-handed” in its approach to public sector workers. He did not think it would be “conscionable for any question to arise about punishing a particular union because of the stance they take”. He did not think “sweeteners” were being used to sway the votes of unions that stayed in the process.
