Madam, - Despite EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson's fallacious assertion to the contrary, there is a very direct and significant link between the WTO concessions he has offered and the Lisbon Treaty referendum ("Mandelson critical of IFA linking trade talks to treaty", The Irish Times, May 7th).
The Lisbon Treaty enshrines Articles 38 to 44 of the Treaty of Rome, which established the Common Agricultural Policy as a cornerstone of European integration from the start.
The Treaty of Rome, which is the legal basis for the entire European project since 1957, contains very strong commitments to European food production, with specific commitments to assure the availability of food supplies, to stabilise markets and to provide a fair standard of living for the agricultural community.
In his conniving and double-speak in Geneva, Peter Mandelson is deliberately tearing up fundamental articles of the Treaty of Rome. Even before the ink is dry on the Lisbon Treaty, he would consign its provisions to the same fate. So much for the word of this British politician in Europe.
Quite clearly, either the articles in European treaties are respected and upheld or the people will lose respect for the treaties and distrust politicians promoting them. - Yours, etc,
PADRAIG WALSHE, President, Irish Farmers' Association, Irish Farm Centre, Bluebell, Dublin 12.
Madam, I am disturbed at the extent of the misrepresentation of the content and alleged implications of the Treaty of Lisbon being peddled by Libertas, Sinn Féin and their fellow-travellers.
I am also disturbed at what seems to be a new phenomenon: "I don't know anything about it, they are not informing me about it, so I'm going to vote No." This is anti-intellectual to the point of being brain-dead.
It is up to all of us to find out about the thing, not to rejoice in ignorance. In any case, the default approach of the ignorant should logically be to abstain.
It is not impossible to read the treaty: I've done it. Our corporate tax regime cannot be touched. Neither can our precious neutrality. The best plain-English guide to the treaty that I have found is written by Andrew Duff, a British Liberal Democrat MEP. It contains 14 pages of quite low-density text. It can be found at http://www.alde.eu/fileadmin/files/Download/True-Guide-NEW.pdf.
This guide eliminates the emotive and states the facts. Everyone should read it and avoid the hyperbole of the extremists. I will be voting Yes, and think that all fair-minded people should do likewise. - Yours, etc,
CONOR SEXTON, Castleside Drive, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.
Madam, - In your Editorial of April 29th you stated that "voters can learn a lot in a short time but it is essential that the quality and accuracy of political debate should allow this. So far that has certainly not been the case."
On the same day, in an opinion piece in your newspaper, the Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald penned several inaccuracies with respect to the Lisbon Treaty. These included the issues of tax, neutrality, Article 48 being self-amending and reference to only one-half of the proposed new double majority voting system.While we cannot apply a mathematical template to political debate, matters of fact can be established with reasonable certainty.
Your paper, almost alone, has given space over the past few months to the issues involved in the Lisbon Treaty. You would do the debate some service if you commissioned an independent legal authority to analyse the accuracy or otherwise of this opinion piece and others. - Yours, etc,
BILLY TIMMINS TD, Fine Gael Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.
Madam, - Joe Costelloe TD, complaining about literature critical of the Lisbon Treaty being available in Catholic Churches, reveals that he does not seem to understand religion in general, and Catholicism in particular.
If any of the literature is bereft of Catholic teaching, and I suspect the Libertas leaflets may well be, then his point is well made in regard to that literature only. Cóir has produced a number of documents addressing the moral and political teaching of the Catholic Church and how support for the Lisbon Treaty works in opposition to that teaching. Alive! is a Catholic newspaper and its editorial line on the Treaty of Lisbon is entirely informed by Church teaching.
Since Mr Costello represents the Labour party, which is in favour of legalised abortion and same-sex marriage and opposed to Church involvement in school management, it is not surprising that he might not want church-going Catholics to have access to appropriate information on the Lisbon Treaty. Committed Catholics, if properly informed, are in my opinion bound to vote No. - Yours, etc,
RICHARD GREENE, Cóir, Capel Street, Dublin 1.