JASON O'MAHONY,
Sir, - I see that elements of the No campaign, while expressing profound concern for the peoples of the applicant countries, have decided to make worker migration one of the main issues.
People who wish to leave poverty behind can come to Ireland and undercut indigenous workers for a pittance of a wage. That's the claim.
Here? In one of the most expensive countries in western Europe? If they are paid substantially less than Irish workers, they will be as badly off as in their own countries, so why come in the first place? Where's the logic? Methinks there's some mongering going on here, of the scary variety.
Secondly, the anti-Nice academics should visit the odd Irish workplace now and again. It is claimed that Irish businesses are chomping at the bit to replace Irish workers with foreigners. This is fundamentally incorrect, primarily because it makes the anti-Nice assumption that Irish workers are less productive - the same workers who built the Celtic Tiger, by the way.
We haven't begun to discuss the fact that these new workers will be engaged in economic activity and paying taxes into the Exchequer. As for the idea that we're going to be swamped by citizens of poorer EU states, ask yourself this. Greece is poorer than us, and an EU country with full travel rights; but how how many blokes named Stavros do you know?
The No campaigners point out that other EU governments, unlike our own, got seven year opt-outs from the freedom-to-work provisions. That's true. But then, our government doesn't have to face down far right anti-immigrant parties on polling day - though, if this is the tack the anti-Nice people are going to take, that too might be a thing of the past.
Finally, remember one thing. These people aren't foreigners. They're us 15 years ago. - Yours, etc.,
JASON O'MAHONY, St James's Wood, Kilmainham, Duboin 8.
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A chara, - Having voted for and campaigned for a Yes vote in the last referendum on Nice, I am now seriously considering voting and campaigning for a No vote in the next one - not for what I consider the spurious reasons put forward by people like the Green Party, but for a much more serious reason: the loss of our automatic right to a Commissioner.
This, to me, is the most fundamental matter facing the Irish people since joining the Common Market. We will, for long periods, be unrepresented at the Commission table. Has anybody really thought out what a potential disaster this could be for our national interests? How any Government could have negotiated away our right is beyond my comprehension.
How can it be argued that we are an equal member of the EU when some countries have an automatic right to two Commissioners when we will only have a Commissioner on odd occasions. So would those who are campaigning on spurious matters such as neutrality (nobody can compel us to go to war without our consent), please re-examine their priorities and demand that the Government re-negotiate the treaty so that our right to a Commissioner will be maintained and so ensure that we do not become mere "bit players" in the EU. - Is mise,
JACK CULLINANE, Glenribben, Lismore, Co Waterford.
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Sir, By a feat of irrelevancy, David Harding (July 1st), finds a connection between Sarajevo's long ordeal and our neutrality. He might read Unfinest Hour by Dr Brendan Simms before reaching for this particular stick to beat his own country.
The 40-month siege and the daily deaths in the streets, markets and even cemeteries continued because two permanent members of the UN Security Council permitted it. Aircraft stood idly by on 18 Italian airfields waiting for a call from British and French generals. (France might have acted but could not get British support.) Many reasons were found for this.
Permanent member troops were necessary in Bosnia but they bore out Dag Hammarskjold's view that they would be driven by their own national interests. We had troops elsewhere, doing their best to implement a much vaguer and weaker UN mandate. - Yours, etc.,
E.D. DOYLE, Tower Road, Clondalkin, Co Dublin.