Murnaghan Interview with Daniel Mulhall, Irish Ambassador to the UK, 31.01.16

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS


DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Sir Terry Wogan’s death has been announced today at the age of 77 and Sir Terry was of course one of the best known, if not the best known broadcaster in the United Kingdom but of course before he came to the UK he was massive, a legend in his native Ireland and I’m glad to say I’m joined now by the Irish Ambassador to the UK, Daniel Mulhall.  A very good morning to you, Ambassador, and that’s the point isn’t it, that Terry cut his broadcasting teeth in his native Ireland.  

DANIEL MULHALL: Yes, I’m old enough to remember the beginnings of Radio Telefis Eireann, RTE and the icons of that period, Eamonn Andrews, Terry Wogan, Gaye Byrne who is still broadcasting in Ireland and of course those people made a huge impact because in those days, certainly in my part of Ireland, there was one television station so everybody tuned in to see the programmes and he hosted a programme called Jackpot which was the first quiz programme on Irish television and he was hugely popular.  I mean he had a massive audience, virtually everyone tuned in to the key programmes so Terry really was a national treasure for Ireland as well and it’s interesting that I hear him being spoken of here in Britain as a national treasure, so there are not many people probably who could have such prominence in two countries.  That just reflects I suppose the nature of the relationship and the contribution that Irish people have made and the closeness of the two countries, that it’s not unusual for people to come here from Ireland and make a big contribution to life and become key prominent figures in British society.

DM: He was from Limerick originally and he never forgot that or indeed was never shy about it, he kept the links going didn’t he?

DANIEL MULHALL: Indeed, in fact President Higgins led the tributes to him in Ireland this morning by making the point that he was probably the best known voice in Britain and Ireland and he made the point that he regularly came back to Ireland to do various broadcasting projects and was a regular visitor and he never forgot his Irish identity.  He is a good example of how somebody can be fully integrated, part of British society and yet feel completely and proudly Irish and I meet people all the time here and people who have been here 50, 60, 70 years and they are as Irish as the day they arrived and I think Terry was someone like that.  He came to the Embassy quite often for functions and he was always a welcome guest with us.

DM: I’m sure he was.  How did he get the knighthood, obviously not being a British citizen, there are very few of us, obviously Sir Bob Geldof and we have Sir Terry Wogan as well.    

DANIEL MULHALL: I suppose it’s not for me to say, I don’t understand the mysteries of the British system but it reflects I suppose the affection with which Terry was held here in Britain and I think Irish people, we’re always very pleased to see Irish people do well and succeed around the world, there are so many of them and Terry Wogan was a very good example of that and I want to express my condolences to Lady Wogan and his family because they’re the ones who will obviously miss him most.

DM: Of course, our thoughts are with them and thank you for that Mr Mulhall.  While you’re here, we have been touching on the subject, the closeness between the two nations and I want to talk to you about the Prime Minister’s, Mr Cameron’s EU renegotiations.  I know Ireland is keeping a very close eye upon this and Ireland has had its difficulties with the European Union hasn’t it, namely the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty which was initially rejected by the Irish people. There was then some kind of renegotiation which you I know were involved in, in great detail, and what I wanted to ask you about was how did you get the guarantees without treaty change that would then be enough to make the Irish people change their mind?

DANIEL MULHALL: Well first of all we had a problem and the Irish people had concerns and the government went to our partners in Brussels looking for a response to those concerns and we got that response, therefore there was a basis for the Irish people to vote again on the Lisbon Treaty.  What we got was … in fact the problem was that almost everyone by the time our first referendum result came about, almost everyone else in the Union had already ratified the treaty and didn’t want to re-ratify so therefore what we got was an agreement between the member states which contained the text of a protocol and the promise was that that protocol would be ratified next time the treaty required to be ratified, which was with the accession of Croatia and that’s what happened.  Meanwhile we registered the agreement with the United Nations as an international agreement but let me just say that at the moment we are probably amongst, if not the most supportive country within the European Union and the same with the European Council, our Taoiseach Enda Kenny spoke very strongly in favour of giving or looking to find solutions to the issues that Prime Minister Cameron has raised because we understand how important it is to British-Irish relations.  Obviously it is a matter for Britain to decide the future of Britain in Europe, that’s a matter for British people to decide but as a close neighbour with a unique partnership with Britain, we have an interest in this and we believe that EU membership has been very good for British-Irish relations, our trade has flourished, two-way trade …

DM: So the brake on benefits which I guess could apply to Irish citizens within the UK, the brake on in-work benefits, you think that should be given to the UK, that should be …?


DANIEL MULHALL: Look, I can’t get involved in the detail of the negotiations because they are taking place in Brussels as we speak between Prime Minister Cameron and the Presidents of the Commission and European Council.  All I can say is that Ireland … we have to find a solution among the 28 member states, that’s what happened in our case all those years ago at the time of the Lisbon Treaty.  I believe that the European Union has a great gift for finding solutions and I’ve seen situations in the past where it didn’t look like a solution was possible and somehow we have this ability to work together if there’s a political will and I think what the European Council in December demonstrated was that there is a political will to find a solution.  What the solution will be I can’t possibly say, nobody can but I am convinced that sooner or later a solution to these issues will be found because everyone has an interest in finding solutions, that’s the great gift of the European Union in my experience.

DM: Mr Ambassador, thank you very much indeed.  Some very interesting comments there on the EU renegotiations and some very fine words on Sir Terry Wogan, thank you very much indeed, Dan Mulhall there.