Madam, - May I first of all express some surprise at the emphasis placed by Labour Party MEP Proinsias De Rossa (March 8th) on the fact that I represent the north in the European Parliament. I can't imagine him making a similar comment about my fellow Irish MEPs who represent constituencies in the south, east or west. While he doesn't actually tell me to "get back across the border where you belong", it appears to be the subtext of his response to my Irish Times article on the highly controversial services directive. Is this Labour Party policy, or merely an attempt to garner the Fine Gael vote?
As to the other points raised in Mr De Rossa's response, I must emphasise strongly that the European Parliament did not reject the "country of origin" principle - it voted for a compromise amendment that renames this principle but leaves it intact.
This is why Commissioner McCreevy was so anxious that people should vote for it.
The "compromise" between the Socialist Group and the European Peoples Party (EPP) seems to have consisted largely of the EPP making the amendments they wanted and providing the Socialist Group with a political fig-leaf.
Fortunately the French and Belgian Socialists saw the compromise for what it was and voted against, as did every member of the group of which Sinn Féin is a member (European United Left/Nordic Green Left), the Greens and others - a total of 215 MEPs.
Mr De Rossa knows well that organisations such as the European Anti-Poverty Network and the European Social Platform have focused on the particular concerns of their members and have promoted a certain number of positive changes which they continue to defend.
This does not take away from the fact that tens of thousands of people from trade unions and social NGOs demonstrated in Strasbourg against the services directive (not to amend the services directive) and many remain vehemently opposed to it.
These people would have benefited from a more robust opposition to the services directive by MEPs, sending a clear signal to the Commission and to national governments that their votes could not be taken for granted.
Political leadership requires dealing with the broader picture, and recognising a bad piece of legislation for what it is rather than trying to justify it by claiming it's not as bad as it could be.
I appreciate that Mr De Rossa supported some of the amendments I put forward (eg, to remove education, cultural services, environmental services and all public services from the scope of the directive) but when these amendments were defeated surely he should have recognised it as a bad deal and voted against.
Sinn Féin will continue to engage with trade unionists and others throughout the island on the need to see the controversial services directive defeated.
We would invite members of the Labour Party to join us in that task. - Yours, etc,
BAIRBRE DE BRÚN MEP, Sinn Féin, Parnell Square, Dublin 1.