Ms Sile de Valera, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, has made a timely call for "a debate in Ireland on our place in the European Union and its place in our lives." She looks forward to a time when Ireland will exercise a more vigilant and questioning attitude to the EU, as it makes a move towards closer integration which she would not personally favour. She raises the question of whether that is in Ireland's interests, especially since EU enlargement will shift the emphasis towards the eastern part of the continent. She also mentions concerns about Ireland's neutrality and the need for diligent attention to the emerging shape of the new European foreign policy.
One does not have to agree with Ms de Valera on these issues to welcome her call for a debate. Nor does one have to assume that she speaks on behalf of the entire Government is raising them politically. Whether because of an assumed consensus on basic EU policy across the main political parties, or because of a lack of awareness of the potential impact of changes actively under way in the EU, these issues often do not get the political and media attention they deserve. This can mean that when new arrangements are put in place they take those concerned by surprise. A lack of political debate can mean, too, that the Government is ill-prepared for negotiations affecting vital national interests or for referendum campaigns required to ratify inter-governmental treaties.
A major set of issues concerning the future shape of the EU comes on the political agenda this autumn and winter, which makes Ms de Valera's speech all the more relevant. Much of it has to do with preparing the EU for a continental enlargement which will nearly double its existing size. That necessitates changes in decision-making and representation which will profoundly affect Ireland's position and role in the EU over the next generation. Immediate changes will be agreed in coming months and completed at Nice in December. But already it is clear that further moves are under way to deepen integration so that the EU becomes more effective and politically accountable. Ireland will have to decide whether maintaining optimum influence will require full or partial participation, including in defence and security arrangements.
The political significance of Ms de Valera's remarks is that she registers concern at the possible direction of such deeper integration similar to those raised by the Tanaiste, Ms Mary Harney, in a speech last July. Both ministers asked whether that would be in Ireland's best interests - and both were made to US audiences, showing an awareness of Ireland's close trans-Atlantic relations. There are hints here of an ideological preference for US rather that EU models of socio-economic affairs, including a strong preference for low taxation regimes. That is a political choice which does not depend on counterposing Ireland's European and American identities. Nor does it follow that closer EU integration automatically centralises, as both ministers assume. That is the stuff of the political argument which they have usefully initiated.