Net contributors to EU but we’re not yet Eurosceptics

At the historic EU summit where mutualising borrowing and sharing debt was decided, from left, European Council President Charles

After 15 years as a Member of the European Parliament, in between her stint as an Independent TD from 2002 to 2007, and regaining that Sligo-Leitrim seat last February, Marian Harkin is one of the best informed in the Dáil when it comes to the EU.

As her Dáil colleagues bickered last week over what Ireland did or didn’t get in the EU’s €1.82 trillion budget and coronavirus recovery package, she reminded them that the annual EU budget is between 1% and 2% of what all 27 member states spend nationally each year.