Madam, - The signatories of the 1916 Proclamation sought to establish an independent state that would embody "the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies".
The German Federal Ministry of Justice has estimated that between 1998 and 2004, 23,167 legal acts were adopted in Germany, of which 18,917, or 80 per cent, were of European Union origin.
Presumably Ireland, being a unitary state rather than a federal one like Germany, would have a higher proportion of its domestic laws made centrally. So the EU is probably responsible for two-thirds or so of our laws. Maybe the Government would give us the exact figure?
Having to obey laws made mostly by others means being ruled by others. It is the opposite of a country being independent, sovereign and democratic. What role do the Irish State and Irish people have in making EU laws? We have one member out of 25 on the EU Commission, the body of nominated, non-elected officials that has the monopoly of proposing all EU laws. That is 4 per cent influence there. We have one Minister out of 25 on the EU Council of Minsters, which makes EU laws on the basis of the Commission's proposals. That is another 4 per cent influence there. In practice, most EU laws are nowadays adopted by qualified majority vote on the Council of Ministers, where Ireland has 7 votes out of 345, that is 2 per cent of a say, and in which it may be outvoted on most matters if they are put to a vote.
The European Parliament may propose amendments to draft laws of the EU Council of Ministers, but it cannot have these amendments adopted without the agreement of the Council and Commission, and it cannot itself initiate any law. The Irish State has 13 members out of 732 in the European Parliament, that is 2 per cent of a say, and the North has three MEPs.
Yet when the whole of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom from 1800 to 1921, it had 100 MPs out of 600 in the British Parliament, of which some 70 were Nationalists. That gave nationalist Ireland 12 per cent of a say at Westminster; yet the Irish people were unhappy with majority rule from London then and aspired to a parliament of their own in an independent Irish republic.
As for "the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland", how can our politicians pretend to exercise that right when under EU law it is illegal for an Irish Government to adopt any measure that would prevent the 450 million citizens of the other EU States from having the same rights of ownership and establishment in this country as Irish citizens, in relation to land-buying, fisheries, residence, employment or the conduct of any economic activity?
In addition, the Irish Government is fined regularly for breaking EU laws by the EU Court of Justice - something no sovereign State anywhere in the world is subject to. Under the European treaties it is legally obliged to work towards a common EU foreign and security policy and common rules in crime and justice matters. As a member of the euro zone it has no control of either the rate of interest or its currency exchange rate, which are classical economic tools of all independent governments that seek to advance their people's welfare.
One may regard this rule by the EU as a good or a bad thing, but whatever it is, it is surely not synonymous with the Irish people possessing the ownership of Ireland and exercising the unfettered control of Irish destinies. Is this not a thought worth considering on this 90th anniversary of 1916? - Yours, etc,
ANTHONY COUGHLAN, Secretary, National Platform, Crawford Avenue, Dublin 9.
Madam, - No congratulations to Robin Bury (April 24th) for getting so many facts wrong. It is simply not true to state that the 1916 Rising "had no support" and that there is little doubt that we would have achieved independence peacefully.
Certainly many buildings were destroyed in central Dublin, including my great-aunt and great-uncle's home in Henry Street, but, as George Bernard Shaw also wrote at the time, "what does matter is that the Liffey slums have not been demolished".
Furthermore, as Garret FitzGerald states in his letter on the same page, between 1996 and 2002 the Protestant population grew very much faster than the Catholic population. This hardly indicates a collapse of the Protestant minority, as claimed by Mr. Bury.
Finally, it is a bit rich to complain that a relative of the Kaiser might have become King of Ireland if Germany had invaded. After all, George V was the Kaiser's cousin. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK O'BYRNE, Shandon Crescent, Dublin 7.