Gratitude to Europe was among issues discussed at the first Forum on Europe "roadshow", writes Marie O'Halloran
Patricia McEntaggart does not feel "absurdly grateful" to the EU for the benefits Ireland have accrued from membership. It was hard to feel grateful for something you've always had, she told the Forum on Europe public meeting in Drogheda.
Ms McEntaggart, from Dundalk, voted No the last time around. Of the predominantly middle-aged male audience of about 160 people, she was the only woman to speak at the meeting, but among a number of younger voices who gave their opinions.
She grew up in "modern Ireland" with a good education, college and a job, and had no experience of the hardships of the past. "I don't feel absurdly grateful and maybe that's selfish, but that's the way a lot of people feel."
She added that when "people stop being absurdly grateful they start being more critical". If the Government wanted a Yes vote it would have to listen to people, show respect for their opinions and be honest.
Issues such as qualified-majority voting and losing a commissioner were important and should not be dismissed as "airy fairy", she said in reference to a comment by the local TD and Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Ahern, a platform speaker along with Sinn Féin's European affairs spokesman Mr Aengus Ó Snodaigh.
The Minister, however, said he was not being flippant but had been referring to the perceptions of accession countries in the aftermath of the No vote last time.
He was in Slovenia the week after the result and everyone from the prime minister down felt it was "in some way the Irish people saying to Slovenia that they should not have the same benefits that Ireland had for the past 30 years". That was not his view but the perception of the accession countries.
The two politicians addressed the meeting from Yes and No standpoints on the theme "Has EU membership been good for Ireland? What will it be like in the future as the EU expands and adapts to new challenges?"
The meeting on Tuesday was the first of a series by the Forum on Europe across the State "to provide a neutral space to enable people to hear all sides of the argument on Europe and to have their say, in their own areas", according to Senator Maurice Hayes, chairman of the forum, which meets in Dublin Castle today.
About 30 people asked questions or made comments. One Drogheda man said he had voted for the Single European Act in 1987, and he was still waiting for the single market on vehicle registration tax, which meant people in the Republic paid 43 per cent more for cars than someone from the North buying in the Republic.
Another Drogheda man, Mr Charlie Hamill, said Europe had done nothing for his town. When Ireland joined the EU, "the world was at our feet". Yet listing factories which had closed in Drogheda since then, he said Drogheda had become a commuter town for Dublin.
He said the EU had dropped the working week from 48 to 40 hours but people were spending up to 25 hours a week in their cars travelling to and from work.
However, a young solicitor who works at the International Financial Services Centre, Mr Thomas Murnin, said the future was in high-skilled technology jobs and the EU had brought them.
Mr Eamon Fairclough, a former EU official, said some factories had closed because they were labour intensive and not at the core of expanding European industry and technology. He added that his daughter-in-law was Polish and everyone he met there appealed for Ireland to vote Yes.
Mr Ó Snodaigh said Ireland was moving from depending on Britain to depending on multinationals. "Ireland is in danger of being relegated to the status of patronised smaller nation".
Former IFA president and MEP Mr Alan Gillis said Ireland had influence and "punched above its weight" in the EU.