asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will publish a White Paper setting out the implications of the Draft European Act before it is debated in Dáil Éireann.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Single European Act.
28.
Has Deputy Collins taken account that this is a long reply because it is very important? This is before he begins to protest.
I think the Minister is trying to delay. Which question is he afraid of?
I do not think I am afraid of any. If I do not come to them now I will discuss either of them outside.
I welcome the opportunity which this question offers to refute some of the allegations being made regarding the Single European Act. For the most part these allegations have come from people who appear either not to have read the text of the Act or to have misunderstood its terms, deliberately or otherwise.
As regards neutrality, fears have been aroused about the provisions of the Single Act which have no foundation. The foreign policy provisions of the Single Act are essentially a formalisation of the existing practices of European Political Co-operation, as they have gradually evolved over the years. EPC was in existence at the time of our accession and it has evolved slowly since we joined with our full co-operation: the practices formalised in the Single European Act constitute no more of a threat to our neutrality now than they did at the time we joined the European Community. If anything, the Single European Act makes our position more secure since, in addition to confirming that the scope of EPC will remain limited to the political and economic aspects of security, it clearly and explicitly provides that co-operation on the military aspects of security are not for the European Community but for NATO and the Western European Union.
There have also been suggestions that the limited extension of qualified majority voting will somehow weaken our capacity to protect our interests. On the contrary the increased provision for voting by qualified majority is very much in our interest. The main area to which qualified majority voting has been extended is in relation to the completion of the internal market. Our economy is vitally dependent on exports. Seventy per cent of our exports go to the Community market. Removal of the remaining. mostly technical, barriers to our exports can only help our economy. At the same time. where we felt that qualified majority voting would not be in our interest, we insisted on the maintenance of unanimity. Most important, the area of fiscal harmonisation is entirely excluded from the move to majority voting.
It has been claimed that the Single Act will prevent the use of the so-called veto. This claim again bears no relation to the actual provisions of the Single Act. The capacity to invoke vital national interest is a political arrangement outside the Treaty. It remains entirely unaffected by the Treaty amendments contained in the Single Act. It was not even discussed at the conference which negotiated the Act. All member states, including Ireland, remain free to invoke vital national interest should the need arise.
The cohesion chapter of the Single European Act is one of the most important provisions from our point of view and critics of the Act should take it into account. We took the initiative in seeking this chapter in the Single Act. The chapter ensures in Treaty form that the reduction of regional imbalances in the Community will be taken into account in the implementation of Community policies and in the completion of the internal market. The Regional Fund has for the first time been given a legal basis in the Treaties. This will strengthen the Community's existing commitment to the removal of regional disparities, a commitment which last year resulted in a transfer of £271 million to the Irish economy.
Finally, it has been suggested that the Oireachtas has not been adequately informed of the implications of the Single European Act and that the Government are somehow attempting to rush it through without proper consideration. This is quite simply not the case.
The provisions of the Single European Act and their implications for this country have been explained by the Government on a number of occasions in this House and elsewhere. The Taoiseach reported very fully to the Dáil on the outcome of the European Council in Luxembourg on 2 and 3 December 1985 at which the principal elements of the Single Act were agreed. I have myself set out several times for the Dáil the potential advantages both for Ireland and for the Community as a whole of the provisions of the Act. Furthermore, the Act and its implications for Ireland have been fully covered in the Twenty-Seventh Report on Developments in the European Communities which was published last July. This report also contained the text of the Taoiseach's statement to the House to which I have referred. It is clear, in response to the Deputy's particular question, that there is no need for a White Paper on the Single European Act.
Would the Minister even at this stage not accept that the implications of the Single European Act are far too important for there to be any question of us even discussing it unless a White Paper is published setting out those implications? Is he not aware that this concern I am expressing on behalf of my party this afternoon has also been expressed by the members of the Parliamentary Labour Party and the members of the Administrative Council of the Labour Party? Would the Minister agree that questions such as the freeing of capital movements, harmonisation of indirect taxation, liberalisation of insurance industry and renewal of labels indicating country of origin all are extremely important matters that very few people know much about and that there is a great need for a White Paper on these matters? Is he aware that at a recent conference of the European Policy Unit of the European University a Dr. Franz Meyer from Berlin stated that the realisation of a single market would sometimes imply heavy economic and social costs with the elimination of weaker firms and a temporary increase in unemployment? Would he agree that this would need to be fully discussed before rushing headlong into it and that there is a very great urgency for a White Paper setting out in great detail the full consequences and implications of what is involved?
The Deputy is repeating some allegations about the Single European Act which he should know——
What are the allegations?
He told us about the harmonisation of taxes. It is specifically excluded from the Act. If the Deputy had read the 27th Report on the Development of the European Communities published last July he would see what is in fact a White Paper of the implications for Ireland of the Single European Act.
It is not in detail.
It is in very great detail.
It is not sufficient.
I suggest to Deputy Collins that it is at least as full an account as he wants of the implications for Ireland of the Single European Act as would be a White Paper. In fact, a White Paper would probably be just a reprint of that in another cover. I cannot accept that we are rushing this through. This was passed 12 months ago by the European Council and has been debated on three different occasions in this House. I just do not accept what the Deputy is saying.