{"id":257110,"date":"2026-01-22T01:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T01:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/257110\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T01:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T01:32:16","slug":"euroscepticism-a-whisper-thats-growing-louder-in-ireland-says-mcentee-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/257110\/","title":{"rendered":"Euroscepticism a whisper that\u2019s \u2018growing louder\u2019 in Ireland, says McEntee \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/life-style\/people\/2023\/01\/01\/dont-believe-the-eurosceptic-press-the-eu-is-far-from-the-bureaucratic-monolith-it-portrays\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/life-style\/people\/2023\/01\/01\/dont-believe-the-eurosceptic-press-the-eu-is-far-from-the-bureaucratic-monolith-it-portrays\/\">Euroscepticism <\/a>is a whisper that\u2019s \u201cgrowing louder\u201d in the Republic, according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Helen McEntee will on Thursday give a speech to set out her priorities for Ireland\u2019s upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union. Ms McEntee\u2019s will be the leading Government department for the six-month presidency, which begins in July. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a speech at an event hosted by the European Parliament Liaison Office and the European Commission Representation in Ireland, Ms McEntee will say that the Republic \u201cenjoys very high levels of support for the EU\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"> \u201cDespite this, I am concerned by a rising level of euro scepticism in our country. It\u2019s still a whisper but it\u2019s growing louder. It puts forward the seductive populist claim that our problems &#8230; do not lie in our own hands, they must be the fault of somebody else \u2013 and the EU or \u201cBrussels\u201d is a convenient somebody. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI want to foster a national conversation on Europe because &#8230; we cannot allow these whispers to go unchallenged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In her first significant speech on EU policy since becoming the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms McEntee will tell the event that three of the main themes of the State\u2019s presidency will be security, competitiveness and values. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWithout security, there can be no prosperity. Without competitiveness, we cannot sustain our societies. And without values, none of it matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ms McEntee will say the State is \u201cliving in a new moment in history. A moment where events move at extraordinary speed, where assumptions we once took for granted are being challenged\u201d. It comes less than 24 hours after a dramatic de-escalation in tensions between the EU and the US, after President Donald Trump announced that he had reached a provisional agreement with Nato on the future of Greenland. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Trump also withdrew a threat to impose tariffs on eight Nato countries, which he had announced as part of his plans to attempt to buy Greenland against the Danish territory\u2019s wishes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On Wednesday night, he also said he is discussing plans for a \u201cgolden dome\u201d missile defence that he wants to develop on Greenland. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Euroscepticism is a whisper that\u2019s \u201cgrowing louder\u201d in the Republic, according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Helen&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[127935,61,60,43,127936],"class_list":{"0":"post-257110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-helen-mcentee-visit-to-belfast","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pa2026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}