Ireland has been very significantly, a major beneficiary of European funds since their accession to the EEC in 1973

Receipts from the EU budget during that period amount to a staggering €60 billion in total, or 3.3% of the GDP.
Literally billions of euros have been received in structural funds which - any regular visitor to the country like myself will observe -have built roads all over the country, stimulating further growth.
It is estimated that over a million jobs have been created since 1973
While some politicians have expressed frustrations, dealing with the bureaucracy and strict requirements of the EU system, overall it is agreed that membership has benefited the country immensely and without it the 'Celtic Tiger' could not have happened.

As Richard said there have been some 'decisions' that have been continually mocked in the press like the bendy banana Euromyths that attempt to portray the EU as 'beauracy gone mad'
EU scare stories appear on a regular basis, but the majority turn out not to be true.
The commission has even has an EU snopes-like website to refuting the stories.

There was one recently where it said the European Commission was going to standardise the size of condoms and it was argued they wouldn't be big enough for British assets :)

As one MEP for Wales said

"But it's just titillation fuelled by newspapers. Most of the Euromyths are either pure imagination or massive exaggeration. They're spread to make the EU appear sinister or silly.
There's a drip drip effect which builds up an anti-EU agenda and of course it's extremely frustrating
The problem is people believe in the myths. When they said we were going to ban chocolate people thought it was true. But eight years on, it never happened. Time proves it's just nonsense"

She added that focusing on such stories meant serious legislation was often overlooked

Even the Equal Treatment Directive (aimed at harmonising and enforcing a ban across the 27-member bloc on discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, age, religious belief and disability)
was ridiculed in the Telegraph as it meant bishops would be 'powerless to stop witches from hiring out church property' and 'organisers of a Catholic conference, for instance, would be legally obliged to make double rooms available to gay and unmarried couples'

Emma B, proudly European and British!