UCC CONFERENCE:IRELAND'S FORMER position as a strong unit within Europe must be restored and prioritised.
Speaking in Cork, former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald told delegates attending a conference on Irish foreign policy that this was the single most important endeavour for Irish politicians and diplomats.
Ireland’s poor stature within the EU is, said Dr Fitzgerald, one of the great failures in the history of the State’s foreign affairs.
Tracing the roots of the problem back to the 1990s, when “excessive greed for structural funds” began to sour European attitudes, Dr FitzGerald said the situation became visibly dangerous by 1997, as outlined in the Kenmare address by JP Neary. In that address, Mr Neary warned of an uncertain future for Ireland as part of economic monetary union that did not include the UK.
“Entering the euro zone in the 1990s – unhappily without any political understanding of the implications of this for this State’s economic and financial policy – thus contributed to financial collapse,” Dr FitzGerald said.
The survival of a small nation depends on sensitivity to its neighbours according to Dr FitzGerald, but Ireland began to attract a growing resentment from other EU member states towards the end of the 1990s.
“Growing hubris over the Celtic Tiger as well as a move to and above the European level of GNP per head led to waning of European sympathy for Ireland,” Dr Fitzgerald told the conference.
Failed referendums on Nice and Lisbon followed by “the mess made of euro zone membership and the domestic economy” further reduced Ireland’s once well-regarded position.
Three issues continue to actively damage our status within the EU, according to FitzGerald. “Insistence on retention of whole corporation tax advantage as well as exceptionalism on matters such as neutrality and abortion guarantees have visibly led us to being seen as a costly nuisance,” he said.
In his outline of Irish foreign policy at University College Cork’s conference on the history of Irish foreign policy, organised by the history department, Dr FitzGerald categorised six key features, from sovereignty to the abandoning of Ireland’s “hang up” on partition, all of which he branded as successful.
However, Ireland’s involvement in the EU – which was initially successful was now in a failed state, he said. “A key issue for the future will be evolution of European policy through modifying some of the constraints (rigidity on corporate tax and form of neutrality) that may inhibit our capacity to restore our former positive role in Europe,” he said.