Madam, - The Green Party has little, if any credibility on European affairs. Until entering Government last year the Greens opposed every EU treaty since 1972, including the Nice Treaty in two referendums.
In the Dáil debate on the Nice Treaty in September 2002, John Gormley said Nice was a very bad treaty for Ireland and a very bad treaty for Europe, and urged the Irish people to reject it. He claimed the aim of the European Union was to create a military force to compete with the US, and a "political giant" that would trample on the rights of citizens.
At the Green Party's October 2002 press conference in Dublin, when party members called for a No vote to the Nice Treaty, Deirdre de Burca said the provisions on enhanced co-operation represented a push towards a European state, further integration and a weakening of Irish democracy.
The Lisbon Treaty began life in 2001. EU leaders were concerned with the EU's democrat deficit and established a Convention on the Future of Europe. Its goal was to create "more democracy, transparency and efficiency" in an attempt to "bring the citizens. . . closer to the European design and the European institutions".
However, Mr Gormley, who participated in the convention, was vocal in his criticism, saying that "most of the real negotiations, unfortunately, did take place behind closed doors. There were over 1,000 amendments offered but no votes were taken on any of them and most were never even discussed".
The Green Party leadership's Damascus-like conversion is obviously a stunt and its rabid promotion of the Lisbon Treaty is an insult to the intelligence of the electorate. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - Senator Deirdre de Burca (November 25th) claims that I think "the European Union could promote respect for democracy and human rights by boycotting any government that has shortcomings in these areas".
This is mystifying, as nowhere in my letter of November 21st had I made any allusion to boycotting. Nonetheless, the EU does boycott one democratically elected government that it believes has shortcomings: that of Hamas in Gaza. Since Gaza remains occupied under international law, this boycott is in fact a war crime in which the EU, including the Irish Government, renders us all complicit.
In listing the instances of EU "assistance to the Palestinians" and funding for human rights groups in Colombia and Georgia, Senator de Burca forgets that such charity - for that is what it amounts to - is necessary only because EU political support strengthens these ghastly regimes that so consistently suppress human rights. - Yours, etc,