Madam, - The Government has not yet announced the date for the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, but prominent Eurofederalists have already begun their campaign.
Saturday's Irish Times carried the latest broadside - this time from Noel Whelan. Mr Whelan wants to set the agenda for the forthcoming debate. He says the issue is whether or not we want to continue to be fully signed-up members of the EU.
This line supports Charlie McCreevy's threat that if we reject the Lisbon Treaty we will be the laughing stock of Europe.
France and Holland, both of whom have already rejected the main provisions of this treaty in their own referendums, have not become the laughing stock of Europe, and they certainly continue to be fully signed-up members of the EU.
I trust that when it comes to a vote, Irish voters will not be intimidated into voting in favour of this Treaty.
It would be better if Eurofederalists ceased using such bully-boy tactics. They give a very unfavourable impression of the EU. - Yours, etc,
DICK HUMPHREYS, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin.
Madam, - So the Irish will "vote with their pockets" on the Lisbon Treaty, according to Noel Whelan. How disappointing. Within living memory the Irish shed blood to achieve their independence from the British state - which is something that many Britons can respect even if we would have found ourselves on the other side.
Now it seems they are reduced to worshipping the contents of their wallets, rather than honouring their forbears and recalling the first article of the Irish Constitution: "The Irish nation hereby affirms its inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign right to choose its own form of Government, to determine its relations with other nations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural, in accordance with its own genius and traditions."
It is difficult to see how that stirring declaration is compatible even with membership of the EU - where Ireland has but 2 per cent of the votes, and in most cases no veto with which to defend its sovereignty, and yet like other member-states now has about 80 percent of its new laws dictated by the EU. Under the new treaty, the Oireachtas would not only formally acknowledge the intrinsic superiority of EU law over Irish law, but also accept that it has a duty of loyalty towards the EU.
Unlike other peoples across Europe, thanks to the courage and determination of their ancestors the Irish will have a vote on this treaty - and one hopes that they will not waste it. - Yours, etc,
Dr D.R. COOPER, Maidenhead, Berkshire, England.