Brexiteers are wrong to treat successful Ireland with contempt

Speaking of the EU’s relationship with Ireland, Reaction writer Gerald Warner yesterday wrote: “Suddenly the EU is consumed with concern for the wellbeing of Ireland — the nation it contemptuously compelled to hold a second referendum on the Treaty of Nice in 2002, after it came up with the “wrong” answer in 2001.” He is right – that did happen. But since then it is clear Ireland’s relationship with the EU has changed. Ireland is now a net contributor rather than a beneficiary, and, support for the EU in Ireland is among the highest in Europe, according to Eurobarometer 2015.

The Brexiteers do like to paint a certain picture of Dublin and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. The Irish politicians are inexperienced; they are grandstanding; they are naive and being manipulated by the Brussels bureaucrats.

But is this really fair? Is Ireland, a country that benefits massively from its membership of the EU, being manipulated by the likes of Donald Tusk and Michel Barnier? And is Leo Varadkar, who has stood up for Ireland’s national interest pretty successfully so far, simply naive and not up-to-task?

Gerald adds: “An intelligent Irish government would have secured its economic interests by aligning itself with the UK.”

It would be an absurdity, even for the most ardent Brexiteer, to actually believe this.

Ireland’s economic history tells the story. Ireland’s entrance to the EEC in 1973 followed by the design of the single market in the 1990s are two foundational moments in modern Ireland’s economy. This saw the country put years of underachievement behind it and become a prosperous economy that punches far above its weight.

Post-war Ireland was poorer than Italy and grew slower than Switzerland. It was falling further and further behind the likes of post-war France, but accession to the EEC in 1973 changed that story. Steadily,  Ireland changed. Soon it was no longer the underachiever. Foreign investment boomed encouraged by its membership.

It is true that Ireland has seen boom and bust in quite spectacular fashion more than once since the 1970s, but the tangible benefits the EU has provided for the economy are impossible to ignore. And now, Ireland has the competitive benefit of a strikingly low corporation tax rate, causing the likes of Facebook and Google to set up their European operations in Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock. The low corporation tax is only appealing because it offers these tech giants a platform inside the EU.

In such a context, Ireland would not be better off aligning itself with the UK – which is on its way out of the EU. Not even the likes of Reese-Mogg could possibly think that’s true.

The EU has improved the Republic’s economy. Ireland would be foolish to throw away that in the name of closer alignment with Brexit Britain.

But the real twist of the knife from the Brexiteers who sneer at Ireland does not come from their failure to understand the country’s position in the whole melee. It comes from the language they use to characterise the government and its politicians. Late last year Theresa May’s former Chief of Staff, Nick Timothy, penned an op-ed in the Telegraph claiming Britain needs to “help Ireland’s young and inexperienced leader” with his “impossible Brexit demands.” This comment came in retaliation from Varadkar’s commitment to prevent a hard border. This is the pervasive sentiment. The Irish leaders are naive, foolish, out of their depth. Indeed, Gerald Warner himself described Varadkar as “never the brightest bulb on the chandelier.”

Varadkar has made staunch, maybe unattainable, commitments. But wasn’t it Theresa May herself in her Lancaster House Speech who vowed to see Britain exit the customs union and the single market, a commitment she has now flip-flopped on multiple times? How many strong positions have been taken, and false promises made by Britain over Brexit?

When Britain makes such statements and commitments, and ducks and weaves, it’s labelled as diplomacy. When Ireland does it? It’s supposedly naivety.

Varadkar may have frustrated the passage of Brexit at points. But it should come as no surprise that prioritising the success of Brexit for Britain over Ireland’s national stability isn’t exactly in Varadkar’s or the Republic’s interests.