These benefits have flowed in both directions - to Ireland and from Ireland. Access to the single market has leveraged significant investment opportunity, employment, and higher standards of living. The substantial transfers of structural, cohesion and agricultural funding have also played no small part in the revival of the economic and social fortunes of this nation over the past twenty five years. Ireland's early decision to be part of the EURO has consolidated our attractiveness for investors. There are many factors both domestic and external that have contributed to this.
Success is a difficult concept to explain.
There is no one single factor that can explain it. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that without being full members of the EU and having the access to this enormous market we would not have experienced the robust growth in our economy of recent years. The Community too has benefited from the unique perspective of a small, peripheral, island State, playing an active part in building a new Europe. A strong voice at the Council, effective representation in the European Parliament, the Commission acutely aware of this new dynamic. Recognising the achievements of the past, the European Union is now gearing up to address the challenges of the future.