Vol. 232 No. 1
asked the Taoiseach whether the Government of Great Britain have contacted the Irish Government regarding proposed consultations between Great Britain and five member countries of the EEC, announced by the British Foreign Secretary to the House of Commons on 20th December, 1967.
2.
asked the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on the present position in relation to Ireland's application for membership of the EEC.
3.
asked the Taoiseach if it is the Government's intention to continue their application for membership of the EEC in 1968; and if he will make a statement on the position at present.
4.
asked the Taoiseach if there has been any recent development concerning the application of Ireland to adhere to the EEC.
5.
asked the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on the present position regarding Ireland's application for membership of EEC; and whether the Government have given any further consideration to the possibility of some form of association other than full membership.
6.
asked the Taoiseach if, in view of Ireland's inability to gain entry to the EEC, the Government intend to review the provisions of the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area Agreement; and if he will make a statement on the Government's attitude to alternative proposals.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 6 together.
The Council of Ministers of the European Communities, at their meeting on 18th and 19th December, were unable to reach agreement on the opening, at this stage, of negotiations with the applicant-countries. There was, however, unanimous agreement that the requests for accession should remain on the Council agenda.
As Deputies are no doubt aware, various proposals have since been made by Britain and some of the Member-Governments as to what should be done in the new situation. In reply to Question No. 1, I should mention that the British Government did consult us about their proposals. The Government are studying these and the other proposals which have been made with a view to deciding their future course of action. The outcome of the various proposals will, of course, depend on the reaction of all the Governments concerned, and developments in this regard are being followed closely through diplomatic channels.
The implications for the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area Agreement of any arrangement which may emerge from these proposals would be a matter for consideration. There is, of course, provision in Article XXIII of the Agreement for meetings between representatives of the two countries once a year, and at any time at the request of either, to supervise the application of the Agreement, to keep its operation under review and to consider whether further action should be taken in order to promote its objectives.
Would the Taoiseach say when the British Government contacted the Irish Government with a view towards consultation on the joint applications for membership of the EEC? Perhaps the Taoiseach would also now reconsider an approach to the British Government for a review of the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area Agreement, in view of the fact that this agreement was drafted in the expectation that Ireland would be a member of the EEC by 1970, and particularly in view of the fact that this Trade Agreement has militated against some Irish industries, with consequential unemployment?
The British Government made approaches to us on 20th December last about the proposition in relation to the new development in the European Economic Community. I do not think it is necessary at this stage and in present circumstances to review the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area Agreement and I do not accept that the Agreement has adversely affected us in general. In fact, the contrary has been the case.
Can the Taoiseach say if there has been a definite proposal from the Benelux countries to the Government here concerning a wider concept of the EEC?
Yes. There was a separate proposal which was communicated to us. That proposal is now under examination and, as the Deputy is aware, there is at least one other proposal, which has not yet been reduced to writing — this is a proposal from the Germans — and the implications of both these proposals are under consideration.
Do I take it that the British Foreign Secretary said that there would be consultation with the Irish Government and that these consultations took place on the very same day on which he made the announcement? He made the announcement on 20th December last and the Taoiseach said there were consultations on 20th December as well.
I did not say there were consultations. I said fresh proposals were communicated to us through diplomatic channels — I did not say that actually earlier — on 20th December last.
Could the Taoiseach say what the proposals from the British Government were?
I can give them in broad outline. They are as follows: that there should be closer co-operation in the technological and political fields and they suggested the most promising fields for co-operation seemed to be (a) political co-operation; (b) co-operation in the industrial and technological fields; (c) co-operation with under-developed countries and (d) co-operation in general weapons development and military equipment purchases. It is obvious that some of these items are not of any particular interest to us, but I might say at this stage that the British proposals appear to be subsumed now by the Benelux proposals because there is much in common between them and the British Foreign Secretary stated at a meeting of WEU that they favoured the Benelux proposals.
Independent of the Benelux proposal, is it proposed to make a separate approach to the French on the basis of the interim arrangement suggested by General de Gaulle?
We have been studying the question of an interim arrangement with the EEC which might be possible, consistent with our existing international obligations and it has emerged from our exploration of this question, particularly in view of our obvious interest in not interfering with our existing trading arrangements with Britain, that there would be difficulties in the way of an interim arrangement independently of the other applicants and of Britain in particular. It would seem, therefore, that any initiative towards an interim arrangement must await the development of the various proposals at present in the air to which I have already referred.
The proposals to which the Taoiseach has referred do not seem to amount to anything at all. The Taoiseach said this himself now.
No, I did not; I said the British proposals, some aspects of which were not of particular interest to us, would now appear to be subsumed by the Benelux proposals which are rather more comprehensive and in some respects are similar to those of the British.
Am I right in thinking that the British proposals to which the Taoiseach has referred are virtually the same as those made by the British Premier in his Guildhall speech? Is there anything in these proposals that was not made public at that time?
I am not familiar with the details of the British Premier's speech. The proposals I have referred to are those announced by the British Foreign Secretary, and they have been well published and are fairly specific.
Can we assume that any action taken for an interim arrangement with the EEC will not be an individual action but will be a collective action with other countries?
We have not taken individual action. As I said already we have been examining the possibilities of an interim arrangement that because of our existing trade obligations, it would appear that independent action is not likely. To that extent, we have not taken any initiative in this respect beyond examination of the prospects.
Does the Taoiseach not think that it would now be advisable to do so, to take individual action with regard to an interim arrangement with the EEC?
Our desire is to ensure that we will create the best possible climate for our ultimate accession and we want to ensure that any action we will now take will not be divisive either of members of the Community or of the applicant countries.
May we now take it that we are not going to go it alone?
I never said that we would go it alone.
Under the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement there will have to be consultations, I assume, with the British Government before there is any interim arrangement with any of the countries of the EEC.
Certainly.
