Current Affairs Former Irish PM insists that EU membership was crucial to his country's economic success

When Ireland became part of the European common market in 1973, it had a stagnant backwater economy. Now Ireland is a dynamic, prosperous country whose per capita income is well above the EU average.

Ireland's EU membership is often given as the reason for this new prosperity. Many feel that the Czech Republic can also take advantage of its accession to the European Union to create similar levels of affluence here. But there are some who dispute this. Dr. Petr Mach, Executive Director of Prague's Centre for Economics and Politics, who campaigned against EU accession, believes that this is an unfair comparison:

Garret Fitzgerald "I think that the situation and the conditions are quite different, and that the European Union has changed a lot since then. For example, we cannot expect these huge subsidies from the EU, which Ireland has been enjoying for decades. So we cannot rely on EU money and we cannot cut our taxes thanks to subsidies. So I think the main reason for Ireland's economic success was its policy of low taxes. But EU subsidies helped Ireland implement these policies. I think we should implement a similar policy as well, but we cannot take advantage of these subsidies."

In other words, Dr. Mach maintains that, instead of forcing their own taxpayers to finance roads, etc., Ireland used German taxpayers' money instead. This allowed the country to reduce taxes, particularly on corporate profits, which attracted huge investment.

Dr Mach also feels that Ireland has some natural advantages such as the fact that it is English-speaking, has a young workforce, and a strong American diaspora, all of which has been instrumental in luring foreign investors to the country. Ireland's success therefore need not be solely attributed to its membership of the European Union.

Former Irish Prime Minister Garret Fitzgerald admits that Ireland does have some inherent advantages, but that it could not have capitalised on these without being part of the EU:

Petr Mach "If we hadn't got into the European Union and got access to its markets, very little of what's happened would have happened. But the reason we were successful was that having got in we had the right policies to enable us to do well, so it's the conjunction of the two that gives you the success. Outside the EU we were a small country of four million people with no chance of going anywhere. So the union has given us an opportunity, but we've cashed in on it by taking the right decisions at certain key moments. We made lots of mistakes too, but we made enough good decisions to compensate for the mistakes."

These decisions included investing heavily in education to ensure a competent and flexible workforce, which proved attractive to investors. The Irish also very successfully set up bodies to promote direct foreign investment.

Even though Petr Mach considers himself a Eurosceptic, he accepts that now that the Czech Republic is an EU member it should do its best to be successful within the union. In this sense, he agrees that the proactive domestic policies Ireland adopted to make maximum use of EU membership are certainly something that Czechs can learn from.

"I think that a good lesson to be learned from the Irish is that we must not simply rely on others, and that we must actively promote our national interests within the EU."