Protectionism to Liberalisation: Ireland and the EEC, 1957 to 1966 by Maurice Fitzgerald

Author:Maurice Fitzgerald [Fitzgerald, Maurice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138730113
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

the UK was already in a very strong position to maintain its policies in regard to both industries.

Ireland thus followed the UK’s lead, but did not seriously have to consider the implications of this decision for some years to come.97 Pointedly, this archetypal stance did not help to distinguish its application for EEC membership from that of the UK. In the meantime, the UK did of course sign an association agreement on 21 December 1954 with the ECSC; evidently Ireland was not interested.98

As Dermot Keogh has subsequently written in his Twentieth-century Ireland: ‘Nothing was done to borrow from the approach in Europe which led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community. The idea of functional integration did not appeal to politicians on either side of the House [Dáil Éireann]’.99 Notwithstanding this particular slant, in itself quite representative of the reality, it is worth noting that there is some evidence, albeit retrospective, to show that the Lemass government actually felt that:

... there were certain features which distinguished the ECSC from the other Communities ... The establishment of the ECSC was primarily a political development which arose in the context of German rearmament. The philosophy behind it was very different, therefore, from that of the EEC.100

Therefore, once the country began to move more in favour of integration, the ECSC suddenly became an ardent consideration. After applying to join the EEC in the middle of 1961, it was still many months, however, before the taoiseach in fact noted that the ECSC agreement was ‘being scanned with a view to our accession’.101 However, he was particularly concerned with the implications of initiating such a move for Irish Steel because, as he stated, the coal and steel ‘agreement provides for something like a managed market for steel’.102 Thus, the government set about assessing the implications of ECSC membership.

Coal was not particularly important in this context because Ireland’s production was minimal - peat, an important domestic source of fuel, was actually outside the scope of the Treaty of Paris - and the country depended on imports. The only significant consideration for the government in regard to coal was therefore limited to sourcing. The Interdepartmental Committee report presented in December 1962 had said, in reference to the implications of ECSC membership for the Irish coal industry, such as it was, that: ‘It is considered that the country’s membership of the ECSC would not have any appreciable effect on the home industry’. This was, in fact, a belief to which the Department of Finance strongly concurred. Ireland was, after all, producing only 150,000 tons of anthracite per annum - most of which was said to be ‘duff, that is poor quality - and 60,000 tons of semi-bituminous coal - the majority of which came in the form of ‘slack’ and which was used by the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) at its Arigna power plant. Irish production hardly rated more than a mention. On the other hand, it still proved necessary to import vast quantities of bituminous coal and 55,000 tons of anthracite for the home market.

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