Madam, - The first step in conducting a constructive debate on the next Lisbon Treaty referendum is to ask whether it is democratically legitimate to hold a second referendum on what is essentially the same treaty.
Many No voters (and some Yes voters) will no doubt feel they are having their arms twisted by being asked to vote again. I think this is the wrong way to look at the issue.
While a majority voted "No" last June, they did not vote "Never". This is to say that if political or economic circumstances change drastically, it is right and democratic to reconsider the treaty a second time.
And things have changed drastically. The entire financial world order has, in the meanwhile, collapsed. We have seen what has happened to small, unaffiliated nations such as Iceland. We have seen how important multinational co-operation can be in a global financial environment.
We have also seen the importance of multinational co-operation on security issues. Since we last considered Lisbon, there has been a conflict in Georgia, which the EU played an important role in mediating.
Domestically, the scale and speed of the economic downturn have caught many Irish people by surprise. It is one thing to consider an EU treaty at 4.5 per cent unemployment and a 25 per cent debt-to-GDP ratio; quite another when joblessness hits 9 per cent and indebtedness 43 per cent.
Even the most ardent No campaigners will have to accept that, given how much has changed and how quickly, another reading of the Lisbon Treaty (this time we should all actually read it!) is entirely democratic. - Yours, etc,
GRAHAM STULL,
Brussels,
Belgium.
Madam, - The recent announcement of a second vote on the Lisbon Treaty confirms to the Irish public that since the referendum last summer the Irish Government has been conspiring in secret with the EU Commission and Europe's political elite to subvert the sovereign democratic will of the Irish people rather than represent it. The subversion of the democratic will of the Irish people now means that Ireland has become a post-democratic state.
All Europeans need to open their eyes and see very clearly that today coercion not democracy is at the heart of the EU project. For daring to vote against the direction and scope of the European project as demanded by the Lisbon Treaty, the Irish people will be subject over the coming months to a massive campaign of threats and fear by anti-democratic forces spearheaded by our own government and the EU elite to force us into submission.
Using the fear of economic isolation is as untruthful and false; for the same failed neo-liberal economic policies that created the current world economic crisis are now to be permanently embedded into the treaty. Passing Lisbon would be as great a disaster for Europe's economy as for its democracy.
During the dark ages Irish monks kept European civilisation and learning safe. During the second World War we helped keep democracy alive as it was threatened in Europe. In the coming months it will be the turn of the Irish people to shoulder this burden alone so democracy can be kept alive long enough for the EU project to be rescued. This is a burden the Irish people must accept willingly on behalf of the peoples of Europe. - Yours, etc,
A.J. CAHILL,
Salthill,
Galway.
A Chara, - Paul Delaney (December 15th) asks whether the granting of one commissioner to every member-state under Lisbon (II) will dilute the effectiveness of the Commission's work. Well of course it will, but that doesn't mean that this ridiculous capitulation to the opportunistic populism of "Save our Commissioner" won't go ahead.
It's a sorry state of affairs when a government has to approach a referendum campaign like the editor of a trashy English tabloid, targeting the lowest common denominator; but that's what we get when we enforce equal airtime rules, and consequently the intimation of equal status and validity, to the unelected lunatics of the Socialist Workers, Cóir and Libertas. The one unequal element was, of course, the funding of some of these shady one-man bands and it is just mind-boggling that, six months later, we still have no clarity on the extent or source of the massively disproportionate funds supporting some of these subversive operations.
Of all the No voters I met when canvassing, and that was a lot, only one person understood the treaty and was voting No to object to what she considered over-pervasive European regulation. And fair play to her. Every single other No supporter I met was voting No because the EU was going to raise our taxes, destroy our neutrality, introduce abortion and conscript our young people. It is a disgrace that this deliberate confusion was allowed to be spread. Given the devastating consequences of our rejection of the treaty and our subsequent isolation, the Government absolutely has a political imperative, and indeed a moral responsibility to put this question to the public again, having taken every step possible to rebut all the false propaganda from the disastrously executed first campaign.
Those anti-European extremists who deliberately and dishonestly manipulated people's fears and concerns, and who are now furious at the prospect of a re-run based on the facts, are the true danger to democracy. - Is mise,
DAVID CARROLL,
Dublin 2.
Madam, - I voted Yes. The people, however, voted No.
Unlike the Government, I will be respecting their position. - Yours, etc,
RICHARD BANNISTER,
Pembroke Square,
Dublin 4.
Madam, - Dermot Walsh (December 12th), referring to the need to destigmatise mental illness, objects to an earlier writer's use of the phrase "the lunatics have taken over the asylum". He may well be right.
On the same day, a gentleman from Donegal argues in the Letters page apropos of the Lisbon Treaty: "Whether or not Ireland has gained from its EU membership has nothing to do with whether or not we should ratify the treaty". He said that such a suggestion and others of like mind about Irish successes in Europe were "a digression".
I ask you: how can we be expected to refer fittingly to the arguments advanced by your Donegal correspondent and at the same time remain within the boundaries of what is politically correct? - Yours, etc,
PATRICK DUFFY,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - Why are the Irish people being told to hold a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty when the other EU states won't even hold one? The solution to this is simple. On the date of the second referendum here the other EU states should hold their own referendums so we will all be voting on the same treaty.
Democracy demands nothing less and this time the Irish voice should be respected. - Yours, etc,
DERMOT SWEENEY,
Ushers Island,
Dublin 8.