EU continues to fall from grace among Irish people, poll shows

THE Irish love affair with the EU appears to be waning with a drop in support for membership for the third survey in a row.

A growing number of people also believe they do not benefit from EU membership, despite receiving over €45 billion from the union over the past 30 years, or €9,000 per citizen. But the Irish can still not be described as eurosceptics since 67% still believe membership is a good thing the third highest in the 15-member Union, while only 5% believe it to be a bad thing.

There has been a drop in support for enlargement due to become a reality next May and the public's attitude towards the US has soured slightly since the invasion of Iraq.

There was bad news, too, for Ireland's MEPs who are up for re-election next June with over 40% of the electorate saying they had no contact with their local representatives since the last election four years ago.

Irish people have always been among the biggest fans of the European Union but the latest half-yearly poll says there has been a substantial change to this.

"It suggests a significant alteration in the overall orientation of Irish people to European integration," said the authors. Just 18 months ago Ireland's support for EU membership was 27 percentage points ahead of the EU average.

But in the poll carried out in March and April Ireland was just 13 percentage points ahead of the average.

There has been slippage, too, in support for enlargement with those in favour dropping from 67% to 60% in the past six months while those opposing it have grown. However, Irish support for enlarging the Union to 25 and eventually 27 members is still significantly ahead of the EU as a whole.

Despite the widespread information campaigns surrounding the Nice Treaty referendum, Irish people still believe they know little or nothing about the EU.

In fact a growing number believe they are ignorant of how the EU works and place themselves among the four most ignorant members of the union.

This feeling spills over into questions on the draft constitution drawn up by over 100 elected representatives, including three from the Irish Government. While their knowledge tended to be better than the people in the rest of Europe only a quarter knew they would have a final say through a referendum on the document intended to reform the way the EU works.

But the vast majority want every country to retain a commissioner with full voting rights Ireland's representatives have signed up to a commissioner who will have voting rights in just every second five-year term.