EUROBAROMETER SURVEY:IRISH PEOPLE say that EU membership has benefited the country more than citizens of any other EU state and are among the strongest supporters of the Union, a new survey shows.
But there is growing pessimism about the state of the economy with two-thirds of people saying they feel the employment situation will worsen during the next year.
A Eurobarometer poll measuring public attitudes across all 27 EU states shows that 82 per cent of people think EU membership has benefited the country, while 73 per cent of people think that membership is a "good thing".
The results correspond to a similar snap poll undertaken just days after the Irish public rejected the Lisbon Treaty.
Only in the Netherlands is there stronger support for the EU, with three-quarters of Dutch people saying that EU membership is a "good thing".
Just 29 per cent of Latvians and 30 per cent of British people say they approve of their country's membership of the EU.
The results also show that Irish people trust the EU and its institutions more than they trust their own government and parliament. Some 53 per cent of Irish people say they do not tend to trust the Government, while 46 per cent say they do not tend to trust the Dáil.
This is an improvement on the results of a similar survey of attitudes carried out last autumn when the results were 32 per cent and 33 per cent respectively. In contrast, 62 per cent of Irish people tend to trust the EU, a rise of 7 per cent.
The European Commission is trusted by 54 per cent of people while 62 per cent of respondents say they trust the European Parliament.Sixty-five per cent of people say the EU conjures up a positive image - the highest result in all EU states. The Eurobarometer survey, which interviewed 1,004 Irish people and 30,000 European citizens overall, reflects growing unease in Ireland about the country's economic prospects.
Two-thirds of people say they think the employment situation will get worse this year, while 57 per cent of people say the economic situation will deteriorate. However, 59 per cent of people say they think the financial situation of their own household will remain the same over the next 12 months.