“No decision is made independently of the EU. That is the nature of that entity.”
You’re making too many excuses for them. Where there’s a will there is a way. The Irish have demonstrated absolutely no collective will to want to disengage themselves from the tit of the EU.
The vast majority still think they live in an independent state. Not to mention there being almost no independent media outside the state-controlled outlets. Their long-standing animosity towards the UK also blinds them to the cause behind “Brexit” and how it’ll eventually apply to them.
Having once lived there, the transformation is very troubling to me.
Ireland is competing with Italy for the letter I in PIGS aka third world component of EU. I think Ireland likes German money as much as Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. If not for EU they’d be in a rather poor shape. The are actually in poor shape, Germany simply compensates their deficits.