Congress General Secetary Patricia King has told a special Dail hearing on Brexit that the European Project must 'deliver for working people, or risk the collapse of the EU.
Speaking at the hearing organised by the EU Affairs Committee on September 22, Ms King said that the 'single most striking apsect of the response from EU leaders to the Brexit result is how they have failed to get the message. The result swung on working class voters in the UK who had suffered years of austerity and deregulated labour markets. Social Europe was sacrificed to save Financial Europe
"Workers paid a high price for a crisis they dot cause and there has been a consequential loss of confidence in the entire European Project.
'the only European project worth defending is one which delivers for working class people across Europe," she told the hearing.
Ms KIng said EU leaders needed to grasp this reality and "urgently develop a programme of substantial public investment, together with a suite of measures to secure workers" rights and decent work."
"Governments and the EU need to abandon the disastrous policies pursued since 2009 and put in place a New Deal to generate growth and jobs. Without this, the collapse of the EU is inevitable."
She said Northern Ireland was "particularly vulnerable place, Brexit could hit Northern Ireland particularly hard given that it is the only part of the UK to share a land frontier with the EU.
Congress will be urging no concessions to Britain which will weaken the platform of social rights. Irish, British and European interests must be reconciled in this process.
Our government must approach this from the perspective of building a better Europe rather than a narrow agenda of "managing Brexit" and said any deal on future UK-EU relations must recognise the critical importance of the Good Friday Agreement.
