The Republic of Ireland joined the union in 1973 but, since 2014, has been a net contributor, meaning the country sends more money to Brussels than it receives back in benefits and payments.
In 2016 – the last year for which full data is available – Ireland paid in just over €2 billion and in return registered €1.6 billion in public sector receipts.
This left Ireland just over €244 million in the red – a more-than ten-fold increase on the net loss for 2015.
And the situation is expected to worsen further, with Ireland’s EU budget payments expected to rise year-on-year from 2017 to 2020.
Information supplied by the Department of Finance in Dublin laid bare the huge increases in EU budget contributions expected over the four-year period:
- 2017: €2.02 billion
- 2018: €2.65 billion (forecast)
- 2019: €2.68 billion (forecast)
- 2020: €2.75 billion (forecast)
Ray Bassett, Ireland’s former ambassador to Canada, Jamaica and the Bahamas, said he believed the country had “already passed” the point at which the budget contributions had “become too much”.
And he warned he expected the figures to balloon further when the financial knock-on effects of Brexit were factored in by Brussels officials.
He told Express.co.uk: “My worry is with the new budget being talked about when the UK pulls out, the EU commission will make a big grab for more money.”
Mr Bassett said he was dismayed at Dublin’s tepid response to the budget’s impending increase and said other EU states across the bloc were already taking hard-line stances.
He said: “Most of the countries like Finland and Austria and the Netherlands are all saying no.
“The EU bureaucracy have a huge vested interest in getting more money from national governments. In the past we haven’t been strong enough. Other countries are much more confident.
“I think Ireland, because of the border issue, want to keep the EU on side. The danger is they’ll say yes.”
Mr Bassett said it was “obvious” a smaller EU should mean a smaller budget and Dublin’s government, led by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, should not be afraid to point this out.
He said: “They’re so pro-EU. What seems the most obvious thing in the word is saying ‘this is a huge amount of money and with a smaller EU we should cut back rather than expand’.”
Mr Bassett concluded by urging the Dublin government to fight against Irish EU budget increases – despite the ongoing Brexit talks and its focus on the island’s border.
He said it was Ireland, not the EU, who held all the cards – not just in Brexit negotiations but also due to the rise in euroscepticism across the bloc.
He said: “We should be much more conservative on issues of the budget. Don’t let the Brexit negotiations get in the way.
“The discussion’s under way at the moment and I hope we’re taking a firm line -especially at a time when populations everywhere are restless about increased transfer of power to Europe.”
When asked for a comment, Ireland’s Department of Finance reference a recently answered question from the government’s Parliamentary Questions.
Paschal Donohoe, the Irish Minister for Finance, said last month: “It is worth noting that these forecasts are contingent on a number of variables, including updated GNI forecasts, the size of the overall EU budget for the year and other EU budget operational developments which will only emerge as the year progresses.
“As a result, all forecasts will be monitored and updated on an ongoing basis as new information becomes available.”
When asked what impact Brexit could have on the payments, he said: “Brexit negotiations are currently on-going. Therefore, as you can appreciate, it would not be appropriate for me to discuss those negotiations or the potential impact on Ireland’s net contribution to the EU Budget in detail at this point.
“Ireland welcomes that the UK has agreed to honour its share of the financing of all the obligations while it was a member of the Union, in relation to the EU budget (and in particular the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020), which will enable a positive future relationship between the EU and the UK.”