Madam, - Opportunists abound in the current economic climate, and it seems the Taoiseach is one of them, as he calls on the Irish people not to make life any more difficult for themselves in the midst of the seemingly surprising economic downturn.
"It is increasingly obvious to me that our economic difficulties and the political dilemma posed by the Lisbon Treaty are linked," he says (The Irish Times, September 16th).
It is easy to correlate the two as they have occurred almost simultaneously; however, it would be welcome for Mr Cowen to point out to us exactly how ratification of the treaty would have attenuated the shock to our economic system. After all, it is also a global crisis, it affects other EU member-states, and, in our case, is not unrelated to a reckless national housing policy, or lack thereof.
Using the difficulties we currently face as an opportunity to promote a political agenda, is disappointingly transparent and predatory.
At the same time, the Minister for Finance is telling us that other EU members will break the EU limits on borrowing in the next year, just like us, despite their commitment to engaging with their EU partners - a commitment we are perceived by our Taoiseach to be lacking.
And despite our perceived lack of engagement, our banks and financial institutions are "robust and well-positioned" to survive the current crisis.
Something in the simultaneous equations does not add up. - Yours, etc,
DUALTA ROUGHNEEN,
Ballinamore,
Kiltimagh,
Co Mayo.
Madam, - Senator Ronan Mullen (Head to Head, September 15th) raises again the widespread argument that the Charter of Fundamental Rights could be interpreted to allow the introduction, in future, of an array of currently unspecified laws. The charter was the source of many widely expressed, and largely unsubstantiated, fears on sensitive social issues during the recent referendum. Cóir's campaign against the treaty, for example, centred on it. The existence of these concerns raises pertinent issues about a possible Irish ratification of the Treaty.
We have to deal with the reality that the treaty would have been ratified here, in all likelihood, if the charter had not been included. On that basis, there could be scope for a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty with an opt-out from the charter. The UK ratified the treaty with a protocol which ensures that the charter cannot be used by the European Court of Justice to change British labour and social rights law.
It should be realised that it will be practically impossible (as well as democratically questionable) for a second referendum on the same text to pass here with the charter included, as it will continue to provoke an unwarranted hostile reaction among significant segments of the population.
Frankly, it would be better for the Lisbon Treaty debate to focus on other aspects of the treaty text. It might be possible to announce the intention to have a separate referendum on the Charter of Fundamental Rights at a future date, when the national debate can then focus attention on these articles alone, without denying us, the rest of the EU, and aspirant member-states such as Croatia the benefit of the other Lisbon Treaty reforms. - Yours, etc,
JOHN KENNEDY,
Knocknashee,
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.