Editorials

The Irish Times view on Ireland and the EU: waning influence at official level

The production line of Irish graduates and officials taking up roles in EU institutions has greatly reduced

European Union flags fly outside the European Commission building in Brussel (Photo by Kenzo Tribouillard/ AFP)

Thu Jul 4 2024 - 20:30

In a move that surprised nobody, Michael McGrath, the former Minister for Finance, has been nominated as Ireland’s next European Commissioner. Senior cabinet ministers have been briefing the Irish media that McGrath has the right background for a senior portfolio. Unfortunately for the Government, the Irish media has little sway in deciding who gets what in Ursula von der Leyen’s next Commission. The political horse-trading is done in Brussels.

Over the past few decades, Ireland has had a disproportionate influence in this arena. There have been eight secretary generals of the European Commission since the institution was established in 1958 and two of these – David O’Sullivan and Catherine Day – have been from Ireland.

This did not happen by accident. Successive Irish governments in the 1970s and 1980s ensured that some of the brightest and best candidates from within the civil service were posted to Brussels. This strategy paid handsome dividends.

Ironically, even though Irish officials were rising to the top of EU institutions in the noughties, Irish politicians were becoming more disengaged from the EU. Former tánaiste Mary Harney’s pithy observation that “Ireland will always be spiritually closer to Boston than Berlin” summed up this approach.

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Over the intervening years, there has been a financial crisis, Brexit and a pandemic, which all underline why it is important that Ireland stays at the heart of the EU. And now the EU is changing and new threats have appeared, including a war on its borders and a possible second Trump presidency.

The union will have to review its structures to ensure it is fit for purpose in the years ahead. That is why Ireland needs to remain influential in Brussels. There are still Irish officials in senior EU posts. But the production line of Irish graduates and officials taking up roles in EU institutions has greatly reduced. The Government has acknowledged this problem, but nothing so far, in practical terms, has happened. It is an issue that needs to be taken seriously.

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