The west of Ireland has more resentment towards membership of the European Union, according to a Roscommon- Galway TD.
Michael Fitzmaurice made the comments in the Dáil yesterday evening during a 15 minute speech about Brexit and Ireland’s place in the European Union.
He stressed that the Good Friday Agreement must be respected, but that Ireland might not be as pro-Europe as some suggest.
“In fairness the government have been involved in a lot of talks behind the scenes and I welcome that,” said the independent TD.
“I saw the other day the guy came and he went to the border where the cow was eating grass and he said one foot you put is in northern Ireland and on the other side, you were in southern Ireland.
“And he says ‘how would the cow know?’
“The cow wouldn’t know for sure,” Deputy Fitzmaurice added.
Poll suggests 88% of Irish people want Ireland in EU https://t.co/pGGnlKeaHL
— Gerard Keown (@gerkeown) August 1, 2017
He went on to say that Ireland might not be as pro-Europe as some suggest.
“I can tell you that in my opinion, while polls might show something different in a lot of countries, there could be an awful lot of a different answer when you go down and talk to people on the ground,” Deputy Fitzmaurice said.
He also suggested that the West could be less pro-Europe than the rest of the nation.
“If you punish a child bad enough, they won’t like it. There will be resentment.
Maybe the west of Ireland and along that shore has more of a resentment, but when talking to people it is very wavy. The EU thinks they can do what they like.”
If they think they are going to control our tax here, the game is up for us; we’ll have a decision to make.
I think every country should have its own control over what it does,” the TD said.
He also called for a special deal on Ireland’s debt as a result of Ireland’s good relationship with the rest of the European Union following the Brexit vote.
