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.

And by relieving the exchequer of most of the burden of agricultural expenditure, the CAP made it possible to introduce major improvements in health, education and social welfare in Ireland.

Among the statistics Daly uses to illustrate her case is the £20m saving by the Department of Agriculture in Ireland’s first full year in the EEC.

By 1978, the EU was picking up 70% of the bill for public spending on agriculture, freeing up exchequer spending for development of our industrial, social welfare and education policies.

No-one can say just how valuable EU membership was during the unstable economic conditions of the mid-70s, which precipitated 20 years of high unemployment, inflation, currency volatility and low economic growth in western Europe.

But it came to the rescue of farmers in a big way after cattle prices fell by one quarter from 1973 to 1974, and more than two million tonnes of Irish beef had to bought into intervention over the next 19 years.