Looking towards the EU, one-third of Irish people said immigration was one of the two most important issues facing the union. This compared with an EU average of 24 per cent. Irish people were also more concerned about the union’s energy supply than the 16 per cent average across the EU as a whole.
Asked about the EU response to the war in Ukraine, 79 per cent of Irish respondents said they agreed with the EU financing the purchase and supply of military equipment to Ukraine, and 94 per cent said they agreed with the EU providing humanitarian support to the people affected by the war. Nearly three-quarters of Irish respondents said they were in favour of a common defence and security policy among EU members, compared with an average of 77 per cent across all member states.
Other member states recorded higher levels of concern about the environment and climate change as well as lower levels of satisfaction with their governments’ response to the war in Ukraine, the EU average being 54 per cent, with 78 per cent being satisfied in Ireland. The fieldwork for the spring Eurobarometer survey, conducted by Kantar Public, was made up of 1,008 interviews with Irish people during June and a wider sample of interviews with more than 26,000 respondents across the EU.