EU fisheries policy - Review must offer hope to sector

We don’t have to step too far back from the turmoil threatening parts of the European Union to see that EU membership has been a hugely positive experience for Ireland.

Membership was the catalyst for economic transformation, social progress, as well as new standards and ambitions in education.

It turned a backward, almost subsistent farming sector into something completely modern. Along with the growth of the great, empowering co-ops the impact of membership in rural Ireland was transformative. It turned a society not too far removed from peasant farming into a process that could support and ultimately educate a family. It allowed Ireland step out of the shadow cast by prices set by markets in Britain. All of a sudden, the horizon was much broader, the future had so much more to offer. Membership, however, was not a tide that lifted all boats.