Sir, - I watch the dying days of the present talks process with gathering despair. I take no satisfaction from it, but say it I must: the performance, so far, by the Irish negotiating team has been breathtakingly incompetent. In the face of intransigence, bullying and hectoring by others they have allowed the parameters of any proposed settlement to be reduced to a formula where the Irish side seems prepared to accept constitutional change in exchange for "meaningful" North-South bodies and a "democratic" Stormont.
Of course, "meaningful" institutions are of great importance and the Irish Government has an obligation to lobby intensively for them; but it must be accepted that constitutional change and institutional reform are two entirely different concepts and consequently there can be no fair exchange between the two. Constitutions are permanent constructs and, as we know only too well, are extraordinarily difficult to change, whereas institutions tend to come and go - and in the sad history of the North, from the Boundary Commission to Sunningdale, mostly go.
If the Irish negotiating team honestly believes that a fair exchange is possible between fundamental constitutional change and the introduction and operation of new institutions in the North, then they are naive in the extreme.
What we must recognise, even at this late stage, and what was recognised by the Downing Street Declaration, the Framework Document and even the Heads of Agreement document, is that if there is to be constitutional change it must be balanced constitutional change. What this means is that if we, the Irish, are prepared to change our constitutional claim, then the British must be prepared to change their constitutional claim as expressed in the Act of Union 1800, the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. Basically, what is in dispute is two rival claims of sovereignty in Ireland, one British, one Irish.
If there is unilateral change on the Irish side, the British claim will be left unchallenged and, as a result, the Irish people will be saying, for the first time in history, that the British right to rule in Ireland is superior in both legal and moral terms to any Irish claim. If this happens it will have breathtaking consequences for the future.
At this stage, Bertie Ahern reminds me of Jack in the pantomime who was duped into parting with the prize family cow for a handful of beans.
Sadly for Mr Ahern, however, life is not a pantomime, and he will quickly discover that his beans have no magical properties.-Yours, etc.,
Robert Ballagh
Arbour Hill, Dublin 7.