I welcome the delegation. I accept fully what the leader of the delegation said, that they are facing a fairly daunting task. It will appear at the outset, as it did to us when we first joined the EEC, that it is virtually impossible to come to terms with all of the different aspects of EU membership. Apart from specific areas like taxation and, probably, parts of their social agenda, membership will impinge on their lives dramatically. However, as one gets to learn this, one becomes familiar with the apparatus and quickly realises, as we in Ireland did, the elements of membership that will be beneficial to their country, both in industrial and agricultural development.
EU membership will change Hungary dramatically. Ireland's agricultural sector today bears no resemblance to what it was when we first joined and the same will happen in Hungary. In the main, however, there will be changes for the good in that country on a personal, societal and economic basis. Hungarians will find that sometimes these changes will be daunting and worrying, but nevertheless they will be for the good.
Membership of the EU has resulted in dramatic improvements in the lifestyle of women in Ireland. I am not certain of the position in Hungary, but most definitely we in Ireland would have been waiting another ten years to see the type of improvements that have taken place since EU membership. These, in the main, were forced on the Government through EU directives. I am referring to directives on equal pay, paternity leave, equality issues and social welfare for women. Joining the EU was good for women from that point of view.
Centralised bargaining should be highlighted because it clearly played a pivotal role in bringing the economy to its current position. However, it should be pointed out to a delegation of parliamentarians, in particular, that centralised bargaining greatly dilutes the power of parliament. It seems to most of us who are elected to Parliament that we no longer have control over the major issues of the day. Issues such as taxation, social policy, health and education are all now negotiated outside of parliament and have become part and parcel of the social partnership negotiations. That would usually be the job of parliament. That is one of the pressure points of which Deputy Howlin spoke. From our point of view, it is a big difficulty that parliament no longer has control over those areas. In addition, it dilutes the status of parliament in the minds of the people. It also brings us all to the centre, as the media is constantly telling us. This is because there is little opportunity to debate different positions, either of the left or right, on certain social changes. From that point of view, one really needs to be very careful.
