TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has said the nearly €3 billion that Ireland pays into the EU budget every year represents “a steal” and is “really cheap” given the benefits of the bloc.

Mr Varadkar said it was “a small price to pay given the enormous intangible benefits” of membership of the EU and said that it was “a pity” that the UK didn’t see it that way over the last three decades.

Ireland has become a net contributor to the EU budget in recent years contributing €315m more than it drew down in 2018 - an increase from €173m in 2017 and €181m in 2016. It's annual contribution is expected to rise to over €3bn in the coming years as a result of Brexit.

Mr Varadkar said that Ireland becoming a net contributor showed the “enormous economic progress” that Ireland had made in recent years.

“We need to continue to inform our public and our electorate about the value of our membership, about the value of the European Union, the security guarantee, the guarantee of democracy and the rule of law, the guarantee of European citizenship, free movement across 27 countries, and of course access to that single market,” he said.

“It’s a steal, it’s really cheap when you think about what we get back from the European Union for the amount we contribute and it’s a pity in some ways that it was never seen that way in the United Kingdom, at least not in the last 30 years, and it isn’t seen that way in other European countries.”

The Taoiseach also warned that “the horrors of World War and the evils of fascism and communism are not in the memory” of young people but that “those forces are starting to stir again” in Europe. He said that “collective multilateral action” was needed to overcome the challenges in the years ahead in order to show young people that the EU has a “raison d’etre”.

He was speaking at Trinity College Dublin at a conference on Europe and the Future organised by the college’s Historical Society and the Institute for International and European Affairs.

Mr Varadkar said that negotiations on the next EU budget, known as the multi-annual financial framework (MFF), were “proving very difficult” but that he hoped to secure a €1bn Peace Plus package for Northern Ireland and the border counties.

Mr Varadkar said: “We should not let Brexit define us or define Europe. Yes it is defining the United Kingdom and probably will for the next few decades, but we are in control of our destiny and we must decide how we want to shape it.”

He said one of the lessons to draw from recent events, including Brexit, was that the EU working together “allows us to solve some of the most intractable problems”. He cited further EU enlargement, migration, the MFF and climate change as being among these challenges. “Europe acting together can be truly a power for good,” he said.

Other speakers at the event included the former European Commission president Romano Prodi, former European Council president Herman Van Rompuy and the former secretary general of the Commission Catherine Day.

Former Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso cancelled his appearance at the event following travel advice related to the coronavirus from his current employer, Goldman Sachs.

Mr Varadkar, whose Fine Gael party finished third in the recent general election, briefly touched on his own time in Trinity saying his time with the Historical Society was “less illustrious”.

“An active member as freshman, I missed out on election to the Committee by a fraction of a vote, and instead channelled my energies into Fine Gael. I fear things went downhill from there,” he said.

Online Editors