EU Influences on the Irish Economy

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EU Influences on the Irish Economy
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EU membership has had a huge impact on the Irish
economy since 1973.

• The neo-colonial link to Britain has been broken
  economic independence means that Ireland no
  longer relies on Britain for the majority of
  imports / exports.
• Access to the EU market has attracted huge
  amounts of foreign direct investment from MNCs.
• The huge transfer of funds (money) from the EU to
  Ireland (46 billion between 1973 and 2001) has
  raised Irish GNP by 4 and brought huge
  improvements to the infrastructure.
• EU laws and regulations have improved safety,
  environments etc in Ireland.

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Negative effects include

• The loss of control of some of the natural
  resources - e.g. Fish stocks.
• Collapse of many small manufacturing industries
  due to the removal of tariffs and quotas in the
  free-trade markets e.g. Textiles, food processing.

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The major influences on the Irish economy include

• Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
• Transfer of funds e.g. Structural funds,
  cohesion funds.