What have the EU ever done for us?

junkyard · 11-12-2008 06:42PM #1

What really are the advantages of the EU? Ok, the farmers got loads once upon a time and we got roads (in some places) but are we really any better off? It just seems to be rules and regulations all over the place, stelth taxes on everything and impossible to make any money here any more.

Captain Darling · 11-12-2008 06:44PM

Roads, aquaducts, currency etc etc.

Économiste Monétaire · 11-12-2008 06:46PM

What stealth taxes are you referring to? Also, how is it impossible to make money here? That's a pretty silly statement--deferring the lunacy of said statement: how is this the EU's fault?

Smart Bug · 11-12-2008 06:47PM

OP, look up the Python "What have the Romans ever done for us" sketch for some clues.

Turd Ferguson · 11-12-2008 06:47PM

Captain Darling wrote: »

Roads, aquaducts, currency etc etc.

Yeah, but apart from all that...what have they done?

Plug · 11-12-2008 06:49PM

Turd Ferguson wrote: »

Yeah, but apart from all that...what have they done?

Bailed us out from the sh!t we were living in.

mike65 · 11-12-2008 06:52PM

If we were not in the EU we'd be like Iceland is at the moment.

Fupped.

Smart Bug · 11-12-2008 06:55PM

mike65 wrote: »

If we were not in the EU we'd be like Iceland is at the moment

Out in the cold?

:pac:Ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaa !!!:pac:

mike65 · 11-12-2008 07:02PM

Worse, cleaned out by Chavs!

Tchaikovsky · 11-12-2008 07:11PM

Turd Ferguson wrote: »

Yeah, but apart from all that...what have they done?

Yeah, what have they done for us recently!? Oh yeah..

Tom65 · 11-12-2008 07:19PM

Aside from everything everyone else has said, we'd be up the swanny when it comes to world trade negotiations without the EU.

Biggins · 11-12-2008 07:28PM

mike65 wrote: »

If we were not in the EU we'd be like Iceland is at the moment.

Fupped.

You mean we're not in dire straits already - and we in it!

I though the Romans and the Greeks gave us the idea for roads, aqueducts, currency!
Goodness! I didn't know it was the E.U.

"What stealth taxes?"

- O you mean the European introduced water charges? Like the ones they imposed on (among other places) our schools?

"We'd be up the swanny when it comes to world trade negotiations without the EU."

O' thats right. They are going to help us out again because their economies are going so well!

"Bailed us out from the sh!t we were living in."

- O' yes, I remember now. What and when was the last (help) "NO" we got from them? By jove - it was this week!

Tom65 · 11-12-2008 07:30PM

Biggins wrote: »

O' thats right. They are going to help us out again because their economies are going so well!

Eh...what? That's not what I said. Trade talks and "bail outs" are separate issues.

The EU has common trading policies. These benefit us. If we went to WTO talks on our own with these policies, we wouldn't get very far (we're a very small country, you see). If we go as part of the EU, we get places.

Stephen · 11-12-2008 07:30PM

This place is bad enough with corruption and gombeenery from the gob5hites in charge - imagine what they'd be like without the EU to keep them in check.

Mark200 · 11-12-2008 07:43PM

The EU has done amazing things for us. Apart from including us in the Single European Market (meaning free trade), they've practically paid for the majority of our infrastructure for the last 15 years.

bmurphy4ireland · 11-12-2008 07:46PM

i read that irish people are the most 'grateful' to the eu, and scandanavians hate it. any truth in this?

Biggins · 11-12-2008 07:48PM

bmurphy4ireland wrote: »

i read that irish people are the most 'grateful' to the eu, and Scandinavians hate it. any truth in this?

:eek: Where'd ya read that?

11-12-2008 07:50PM

Biggins wrote: »

I though the Romans and the Greeks gave us the idea for roads, aqueducts, currency!
Goodness! I didn't know it was the E.U.

Pssst
monty python

smellslikeshoes · 11-12-2008 07:54PM

Billions of Euro, favourable trade conditions.

jhegarty · 11-12-2008 07:56PM

They took our fish.

DO0GLE · 11-12-2008 08:05PM

1)EU grants for 3rd level education in the 90s which meant third level was accessable to everyone, which meant more graduates, which meant more multinational companies being attracted to Ireland, which meant more jobs, which meant more taxes for Fiana Fail to squander.

2)EU money built our infrastructure in the 90s

3)Being in the EU means we are a gateway for European markets which also attracts multinationals setting up here.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 11-12-2008 08:08PM

bmurphy4ireland wrote: »

i read that irish people are the most 'grateful' to the eu, and scandanavians hate it. any truth in this?

Denmark probably - they're very narionalistic over there.

inforfun · 11-12-2008 08:15PM

junkyard wrote: »

What really are the advantages of the EU? Ok, the farmers got loads once upon a time and we got roads (in some places) but are we really any better off? It just seems to be rules and regulations all over the place, stelth taxes on everything and impossible to make any money here any more.

Read this and then ask yourself the same question again.

40 years Netto receiving, that is what the EU did for Ireland.

ejmaztec · 11-12-2008 08:18PM

If the EU delivered all of the hand-outs to every man woman and child, instead of giving them to the government to "deal with", we would all be multi-millionaires.

burgess1 · 11-12-2008 08:29PM

Motorways, Employment, Education, Diversity, easy travel, people to do the jobs Irish people think they're too good for....

junkyard · 11-12-2008 08:31PM

inforfun wrote: »

Read this and then ask yourself the same question again.

40 years Netto receiving, that is what the EU did for Ireland.

I did and I'm still asking the question, I'm not a farmer and never made much out of them tbh, my own business is gone down the pan over taxes and overheads so I was looking around for another means of income and you know what? There isn't anything left to do that you can make a living out of. Fishings dead, farmings dead, driving a taxi, dead, retail, i.e. a shop, dead, selling cars, dead. All these bussinesses have been pushed to their limits with rules, regulations and taxes. The only job busy these days is repossession and tbh I wouldn't really fancy making a living out of other peoples misfortune. If anyone else says roads just have a look around the country in general, they might be good in Dublin but in other parts they're a mess.

stepbar · 11-12-2008 08:38PM

Damm, I thought this thread was something to do with that programme on RTE2 - Langerland or whatever it's called.....

ejmaztec · 11-12-2008 08:38PM

junkyard wrote: »

I did and I'm still asking the question, I'm not a farmer and never made much out of them tbh, my own business is gone down the pan over taxes and overheads so I was looking around for another means of income and you know what? There isn't anything left to do that you can make a living out of. Fishings dead, farmings dead, driving a taxi, dead, retail, i.e. a shop, dead, selling cars, dead. All these bussinesses have been pushed to their limits with rules, regulations and taxes. The only job busy these days is repossession and tbh I wouldn't really fancy making a living out of other peoples misfortune. If anyone else says roads just have a look around the country in general, they might be good in Dublin but in other parts they're a mess.

Everything in the world's pretty much dead at the moment.

junkyard · 11-12-2008 08:43PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

Everything in the world's pretty much dead at the moment.

But has it occured to anyone else why it's dead? Businesses can only take so much in taxes and overheads that's why the whole thing's come crashing down, high costs and inflated worth. We're top heavy with people telling us what to do and how we should pay for this, that and the other and this is the end result.

dlofnep · 11-12-2008 08:47PM

Ever see those pretty road signs with "Funded by EU Grant"?

There's a start. The EU has done alot for Ireland. I'm against the Lisbon Treaty btw, but I don't see the EU as a totally bad thing.

inforfun · 11-12-2008 08:53PM

junkyard wrote: »

I did and I'm still asking the question, I'm not a farmer and never made much out of them tbh, my own business is gone down the pan over taxes and overheads so I was looking around for another means of income and you know what? There isn't anything left to do that you can make a living out of. Fishings dead, farmings dead, driving a taxi, dead, retail, i.e. a shop, dead, selling cars, dead. All these bussinesses have been pushed to their limits with rules, regulations and taxes. The only job busy these days is repossession and tbh I wouldn't really fancy making a living out of other peoples misfortune. If anyone else says roads just have a look around the country in general, they might be good in Dublin but in other parts they're a mess.

It is not much different in other EU countries, it is not just Ireland where things arent going so great anymore.

I think your question needs some editing and should look more like:
What did the Irish government with the money they received from the EU.
It is not the EU who put €0.50 on a pack of cigarettes every year, it is not the EU who increased income tax with 1% in the last budget. And so on and so on.
I think most of the rules you are bothered with are not EU inventions.

And about the roads... imagine the state they would be in without the EU money.:eek:

I am not exactly a fan of the EU myself, it has gotten too big and they are on a powertrip.
The original 16 countries, that is where it should still be.
Make trade easier and stuff like that.

There is too much sentiment in order to get a effective central government.
I think there will be quite a few countries not too happy with the idea of a German President of the united nations of Europe.

What have the EU ever done for us?

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