16th October, 2002
Dr. Henry: I welcome the Labour Party's imaginative effort in bringing this Bill forward and congratulate the Government parties on accepting it. I have little patience with people who complain about the European Union being run by bureaucrats. It is our own fault if that happens. We are the representatives of the people and if we make no effort to take ownership of the process, it is our own fault. I have a great deal of sympathy for those who, all too frequently, have had to represent politicians when they might have preferred that the politicians represented themselves. I have had the good fortune to be on various committees representing Ireland in Brussels and Strasbourg and I got nothing but help with any of the briefs I needed to prepare. Anyone who accompanied me never tried to direct what I should do and they were always supportive of what I felt was the will of the people I represented.
The initiation of the Forum on Europe was a splendid achievement on the part of the last Government and I was glad to be a member of the forum. This Bill reminds me of the committee the Danes have which considers European legislation. I think Senator Ormonde was in attendance on the same day as I when the Danish representatives gave us an outline of how they look at legislation. I hope we try to emulate that as much as possible. It was not a good idea to tag European legislation on to the end of committees because it was left to one side to be dealt with in Europe by MEPs. National parliaments should take notice of what is happening.
This Bill has resulted in us straying into the Nice debate and why would we not as it is incredibly important? It is not only incredibly important for us, but also for the European Union and the applicant countries. I was an enthusiastic "Yes" voter last year and I am again this year, but I understand why so many people did not go out to vote and why so many voted "No". Not enough effort was made to explain the treaty and its importance and I suppose we are all to blame for that. I did not do half as much as I should have done but, this time, I hope I have done enough to persuade those with whom I have been in contact to vote "Yes".
To those who say the Amsterdam treaty allows the applicant countries to join, I ask, if we vote "No" and only five countries may join, who will choose which countries join? What discord will we have introduced in the applicant countries if we insist that they must join under the Amsterdam treaty? I certainly would not like to be part of the process deciding which countries may join.
I visit the applicant countries relatively often. I have been to the Baltic countries, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic and I know the huge efforts they have made to try to fulfil the tasks given to them so that they would be eligible for membership. They have done so at great personal expense in some cases. It is important to remember the words last week of the President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, who, to paraphrase, said that some of the Governments that have brought forward these changes now have a hard time in holding the line, even in holding the line on democracy in many cases.
5 o'clock
I would urge anyone with a vote to vote in favour of this treaty. It is the people of the candidate countries who matter; it is people we are talking about bringing into the European Union, not just states. It brings to mind the words of Yeats in that marvellous poem we all read in school, Easter 1916: "Too long a sacrifice can make stone of the heart." These countries have had five grim decades of making sacrifices. They have made sacrifices of another sort in order to gain membership of the EU, and let us not disappoint them now.
When they say they want to join, who are we to say this is not a good decision for them? Let us welcome them with open arms and let us hope that they prosper and do as well as we have. The benefits of enlargement are much greater for Ireland than any disadvantages there may be.
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