Sir, - I note that in dealing with the Amsterdam Treaty Mr Bertie Ahern is quoted as saying that the "current regime is overly restrictive". Since he is the administrator of that regime is he telling us that his campaign for a yes vote was overly restrictive? If so, I would agree with him for the following reasons.
I attended a public meeting in Malahide organised by the European Movement, of which Mr Ahern is the President, the week before the Referendum, as I was anxious to learn something about the Treaty. The speakers consisted of the chief executive of the Movement, three politicians and an officer of Ibec. Each speaker was allocated 10 minutes, and as all but one spoke in favour of the Treaty there was a total of 40 minutes for and 10 minutes against. Subsequently members of the audience speaking against were heckled by persons unknown.
Garret FitzGerald (May 30th) tells us there were 60 such meetings, all presumably as one-sided. He also says that the Referendum Commission spent about £1 million on educating us, but while I received two one-sided booklets early in May, it was seven days pre-election before I received their compulsory For and Against literature. The fact of the matter is that Mr Ahern's decision to hold the two Referendums together was scandalous and the organisation of the campaign a disaster.
Finally I note that Mr Ahern intends to endeavour to have the judgements obtained by the excellent Patricia McKenna last year, overturned. If he succeeds in doing so I suggest that democracy in Ireland will be dead, if it is not already dead due to the one-sided activities of most of our politicians.-Yours, etc., Geoff McAdam,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.