Madam, - Should Ireland have the opportunity to engage in another referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, might I suggest that we make use of the seemingly obsolete electronic voting system and programme it with a short factual test on the treaty which citizens would have to pass before being permitted to cast their votes?
This would give an accurate reflection of Ireland's stance on the Lisbon Treaty, as opposed to the outcome of the June 12th poll which reflects only myth, rumour, scaremongering and misinformation on one side and apathy on the other. - Yours, etc,
MADELEINE HELLIER,
Croyden Park Avenue,
Marino,
Dublin 3.
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Madam, - Well done, President Lech Kaczynski of Poland, for calling a halt to this farce of insisting that the Lisbon Treaty is alive and well. Let's hope the Czechs follow suit. - Yours, etc,
FRANK BARR,
Glasnevin Woods,
Ballyboggan Road,
Dublin 11.
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Madam, - Philip Breslin (June 30th) says we must "remember where the European project came from".
I would argue that it is more relevant to ask where it is going. - Yours, etc,
LUKE CAHILL,
Foxrock,
Dublin 18
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Madam, - In its effort to find the silver lining in the sow's ear of the Lisbon debacle, the Government should follow the inescapable logic and reward the electorate with what it voted for - by leaving the EU to those with larger and more generous visions of Europe.
In the new, degraded spirit of "Ourselves Alone", we might adopt a new floating Irish pound as our currency, to flutter like confetti in the financial whirlwind. We might also play at nationalism and slip free of the strictures of the ECB and the ERM and move to a Central Bank interest rate more in keeping with our new, isolated position. About 15 per cent would probably do for a start.
If we ever got politically serious again as a country, we could seek to rejoin the EU and its institutions, perhaps initially through gaining the goodwill of some of the states that will replace us in the Union. States like Croatia, perhaps? - Yours, etc,
HUGO BRADY BROWN,
Stratford on Slaney,
Co Wicklow.