Madam, – Brian Flanagan (October 6th) proposes the introduction of a “citizens’ initiative” in Ireland, similar to that introduced to the European Union by the Lisbon Treaty, and says that “apparently, such a proposal was included in a draft of the 1922 Constitution of the Free State”. In fact, such a proposal made its way into the final Free State Constitution as adopted in 1922 and remained in force until 1937.
Under Article 47, a Bill passed by the Oireachtas would be submitted to the people in a binding referendum if demanded by a petition signed by 5 per cent of registered voters. Under Article 48, a legislative proposal could be initiated by a petition of 75,000 registered voters, not more than 15,000 of whom could come from any one constituency. Such proposals would either be adopted by the Oireachtas, or submitted to the people in a referendum.
These provisions were extraordinary innovations when viewed against the constitutional arrangements of other contemporary western democracies – as were many other aspects of the Free State Constitution. Had they survived to this day, they would exert a strong degree of accountability to the people over the legislative actions of the Oireachtas, particularly on issues of vital national importance such as Nama.
So, no prizes for guessing which of the political parties oversaw the abolition of these provisions in 1937! – Yours etc,
Madam, – Brian Flanagan (October 6th) is completely misguided in his call to introduce a “citizens’ initiative” measure in Ireland along the lines of that which will be afforded to European citizens by the Lisbon Treaty when it is finally ratified. As Patrick Smyth pointed out (Opinion, September 5th) such a plebiscitory approach to decision-making has consigned the US state of California to a mire of budgetary disaster, legislative gridlock and governmental paralysis with seemingly no solution in sight. The debacle of the first Lisbon referendum – hijacked as it was by the same liars and scaremongers who unsuccessfully lobbied for a No vote the second time round – gives us no confidence that further plebiscitory decision-making in Ireland would leave us any better off.
If there is, in fact, a “yawning gap” between our current politicians and citizens, as Mr Flanagan claims, then those citizens remain free to express their displeasure at this by voting for a different set of politicians at the time of the next election. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I see that when the Taoiseach was voting, he was asked whether he’d accept the outcome if the electorate voted No and he replied that “the people’s decision is sovereign”. Well, thank God for that. I read somewhere that in Iran, South America and other such awful places, they have leaders who ignore result of elections and referendums when it doesn’t suit! – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I was delighted to read on Reuters that “The Irish 10-year government bond yield spread over euro zone benchmark German Bunds tightened by 6 basis points on Monday, while the cost of protecting Irish debt against default dropped.” This is a welcome development which occurred only two days after our ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
Already international confidence in Ireland has been strengthened and the massive cost of our borrowings has been reduced, however slightly.
This swift change shows that the Yes campaign was correct and honest when we claimed that a Yes would help the economy.
Let us hope that this is a sign of things to come, and that it is taken as a signal that Ireland was right to vote to remain at the heart of Europe. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Now that we can with relief throw away our Lisbon leaflets, can I suggest the next publication the government should distribute to every household is a copy of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, to help us understand the times we are living in. – Yours, etc,