Madam - Proinsias De Rossa MEP is right to say (April 15th) that Sinn Féin did not propose any amendments to the Convention on the Future of Europe. However, he ignores the fact that the Irish Government deliberately excluded Sinn Féin from the Irish delegation, despite our desire to be involved.
Nonetheless our party has followed the development of the Constitution closely and has engaged constructively where possible.
Following the completion of the draft treaty we made a detailed submission to the Irish Government proposing a lengthy series of changes which we believed the Government should have argued for during the intergovernmental conference.
We also participated in the National Forum on Europe and the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs debates. Unfortunately, the Government chose to ignore our proposals.
Mr De Rossa says amendments were received from all over the EU. It would be interesting to know how many of the 6,000 amendments put forward were accepted.
Despite our exclusion from the convention process by the Government we have remained engaged with this debate and will continue to put forward arguments in defence of Irish independence, democracy, neutrality, public services, global justice and an alternative vision of the future of the EU. - Yours, etc.,
AENGUS Ó SNODAIGH TD, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.