The Minister for Foreign Affairs has called for more attention to be paid to the advantages to Ireland of EU membership during the current debate on the Amsterdam Treaty.
Mr Andrews said yesterday that much attention had been paid so far to things that were not in the treaty, "such as supposed threats to our neutrality". More discussion should take place on what was in the treaty and what EU membership had done for Ireland.
"In sizing up the Amsterdam Treaty it is essential to keep in mind the enormity of the benefits we have enjoyed as a result of EU membership over the last 25 years. Membership has given us access to a single market of 360 million people which has enabled us to expand and diversify our exports." Mr Andrews said Ireland's EU membership had encouraged foreign investment, brought total net funding of £21.5 billion since 1973 and had been a positive factor in the search for peace and political agreement in Northern Ireland.
He said the benefits to Ireland of EU membership could not be measured purely in economic terms. EU involvement had increased the State's international profile and improved its ability, through the EU, to exert a positive and valued influence in the international arena. "EU membership has positively affected many aspects of Irish life including equal pay legislation, environmental protection policy, consumer protection law, health and safety standards and social and education policies."
It would be folly to reject the treaty, he said, as it represented "the next stage of Europe's development . . . It is in our best interests to retain our place at the core of the European Union as it takes on the challenges of EMU, of negotiating a new round of structural funds, and of a further enlargement designed to spread the advantages of membership to Central and Eastern Europe in the interests of future peace and stability."