The papers published here, together with the Matthews paper,
address some of the economic questions on which discussion of
further European integration should be based. Will European
prosperity bring Irish prosperity? Does a free market threaten
traditional Irish industry, or aid new Irish industry, or both?
How can a small peripheral economy survive and prosper in a
monetary union? How much autonomy does an Irish
government at present enjoy in monetary and fiscal policy? Are
Ireland’s interests close to the Community average? Questions
such as these are asked by politicians, who expect economists
to answer them; economists tend to react by asking further
questions, by demanding quantitative data on which to base their
assessments. It is one of the positive points of these papers that
the economists have been willing to be drawn out on some of
these current issues of political economy, even if others remain
to be tackled. I believe that the burden of these papers does not
suggest any reason for doubting that in the long term it is in
Ireland’s interest that the Community should be economically
and politically strong, and that Ireland should be a full partner
in that Community
