BRIAN BYRNE,
Madam, - Given the enthusiasm with which our political leaders have been willing to cede large trenches of our sovereignty to Brussels the warning by Dana Rosemary Scallon, MEP, (November 25th) about the proposed European constitution is timely.
Such a constitution would be a further step on the road to an EU superstate with further diminution in the role and authority of national parliaments and courts. Tax harmonisation has not gone away, you know. The Nice Treaty didn't.
Politicians may blather about our influence in Europe, but it is important to remember that Ireland was not consulted about the European arrest warrant which must shortly become part of our law. And Dáil Éireann was informed of changes in our divorce laws only after they had been decided at an EU Council of Ministers.
Indeed, Prof. Dermot Walsh of the University of Limerick has warned that our laws and justice system are being changed without any democratic debate because of the way the EU is interpreting the Amsterdam Treaty.
But what about all the largesse? Well, it has not all been one-way traffic.
As your Business writer, John McManus, has pointed out, EU boats have taken billions of pounds worth of fish from Irish waters under the disastrous Common Fisheries policy.
This policy was a craven and unforgivable sell-out of a great national resource. - Yours, etc.,
BRIAN BYRNE, Ardlea Road, Artane, Dublin 9.