EU played a vital role in Ireland's advance

IRELAND hadn't joined the EEC in 1973, we would now have lower living standards, higher emigration and more unemployment throughout Ireland.

Such is the verdict of Mary E Daly, Associate Professor of Modern Irish History in UCD.

Outlining her arguments in her newly published, ‘The First Department: A history of the Department of Agriculture’, Daly shows how the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) increased the value of Irish agricultural exports.