Madam, - David Garrahy (April 26th) is either seriously out of touch with what has been happening in the European Convention or else he is being deliberately misleading when he suggests that the Government is lacking in terms of communicating the work of the European Convention to the public.
I have appeared regularly before the National Forum on Europe to explain developments on the convention and to set out Irish Government policy.
Myself and my fellow Irish representatives on the convention have attended all the sessions of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs where the convention is discussed. I personally have attended public meetings throughout the country on the issue, and have met with any key group expressing an interest in the convention. The Taoiseach and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have each made a number of keynote addresses on the issue.
By any objective standard, media coverage of the convention and of the Irish approach to the convention have been strong. Coverage in The Irish Times has been particularly exemplary.
How Mr Garrahy could, against this background, reach the rather perverse conclusion that he has eludes me. Whatever the basis of his comment - whether it is political prejudice or a simple failure on his part to inform himself - he can be assured that Ireland is extremely well served by all of the Irish members and alternates to the convention. He can also be assured that for my part - and I am sure that I speak also for the other Convention representatives - no effort has been or will be spared in terms of providing the public with accurate and informed commentary on the ongoing work of the convention.
A final point, on the matter of what the Convention can and cannot do, I would recommend that Mr Garrahy read the basis on which it was established. The convention's remit, to which I referred on RTÉ, is clear-cut. - Yours, etc.,
DICK ROCHE TD,
Minister of State
for European Affairs,
Dáil Éireann,
Dublin 2.