It is 30 years since Ireland joined the European Economic Community in January 1973. Few will dispute that it has been a positive experience, politically and economically. Farmers, who have been among the main beneficiaries, are this week mounting protests against falling incomes, for which they blame the Government rather than Brussels. Their welfare, and most other economic sectors, is now bound up with how the European relationship is managed.
Pooling sovereignty in areas where nation-states - and especially smaller ones - can no longer determine political or economic outcomes on their own has made a great deal of sense for Ireland. But making the most of these opportunities has required a continuing ability to match Irish priorities creatively to European ones. It is a test that will be posed as never before in the next stage of Ireland's EU membership.
In the first decade of membership Ireland reaped the benefits of agricultural transfers, helped to develop European regional and social policy, and positioned itself successfully to avail of a much wider market place, especially for international firms locating here. These advantages decisively offset the loss of jobs in protected sectors; they helped mitigate the two oil shocks of the 1970s. Politically, the benefits of membership were rapidly seen in a more diversified diplomacy and a more balanced relationship with the United Kingdom.
In the first half of the 1980s, by contrast, Ireland's domestic difficulties combined with the so-called period of Eurosclerosis to produce a deep recession, mounting unemployment, high emigration and a growing popular disenchantment with European policies. It took another phase of policy innovation at both levels to overcome those problems. Structural deficiencies in the Irish economy were tackled decisively and harshly, based upon a broad consensus among the major parties and interest groups. This was immeasurably strengthened by a matching innovation at the European level, in which Ireland successfully argued with other similar states for structural and cohesion funds to compensate for the impact of the single market and currency. Arguing and lobbying for these benefits went hand in hand.
These policies laid the basis for the 1990s boom, in which Ireland caught up with EU incomes. Access to the single market rather than the Common Agricultural Policy became the most important aspect of EU membership, along with full political participation in all its structures.
That balance between artful pursuit of benefits and smart participation remains the key to Ireland's successful membership. But it now needs to be reinvented in the light of Ireland's changed position, EU enlargement and the fundamental political reforms under consideration about the future of Europe. The Government has ground to make up on this, and must now make it a priority.