Madam, – No matter how much evidence is placed in front of them in terms of expenditure, the hundreds of thousands of people involved and that the astronauts actually brought bits of the Moon back with them, there are a tiny number of people in this world who simply refuse to believe that Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.
In Ireland, on the other hand, we have people who despite all the evidence refuse to accept that the EU is simply not interested in our position on abortion.
Richard Greene’s argument (Opinion, July 14th) is the same argument that has been used by a range of organisations such as Cóir and Youth Defence over the last 35 years we have now been in the Union.
It is as exhausting as it is groundless.
Their argument is this – even though we’ve been in the EU since 1973 and there has been not one single piece of EU law that has sought to change our position on abortion, even though we are not the only country in this position and in fact are in a group of five EU countries who have clear restrictive measures on abortion.
Even though we have a protocol on our position on abortion in place for 18 years that has never been questioned or affected by any piece of EU law.
Even though the Catholic Church has confirmed that our position on abortion will not be affected by the Lisbon Treaty and even though we had to get an extra guarantee from our European partners a couple of weeks ago reassuring us that our original 1991 protocol will simply not be affected by the Lisbon Treaty, the EU is still going to somehow bring in abortion.
The EU is as interested in changing our national position on abortion as they are interested in what Richard Greene had for his breakfast. So be for the Treaty, be against the Treaty – but as a country, let’s move on from a groundless 18-year-old broken record and debate this treaty on the truths. And the truth is that abortion is a matter for us to decide. Not anyone else. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – It is simply exasperating to read Richard Greene’s opinion piece claiming that the Lisbon Treaty in some way endangers Irish abortion laws. Cóir, the group which he represents, clearly has its own agenda and no matter how many laws are put in place to protect the right to life of the unborn in the Irish Constitution, groups like Cóir will always come back to say it’s not enough. If these people ever had to concede that the Government and the EU had put in place enough protections, it seems they would no longer have a reason to exist.
Nothing within the terms of the EU Lisbon Reform Treaty empowers the EU to overrule the Irish Constitution on matters relating to the right to life of the unborn. Ireland has a particular safeguard insofar as abortion is concerned.
Ireland’s domestic position is already protected in the EU context by the Maastricht Protocol (1992) on the right to life of the unborn, which is unchanged by the Reform Treaty. The protocol provides that nothing in the EU treaties or any future treaties amending them “shall affect the application in Ireland of Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution of Ireland”.
The protocol, as mentioned above, will continue to provide the desired protection in respect of the right to life of the unborn guaranteed by the Constitution.
Richard Greene suggested the additional legal guarantee on abortion which the Government secured is not legally binding and may never be added to the treaty.
Firstly, this argument is completely false, but secondly it is irrelevant as Ireland’s laws on abortion were already protected before this recent additional guarantee was secured.
These are the facts plain and simple. All Richard Greene and Cóir are doing are espousing conspiracy theories to support their own agenda. – Yours, etc,
A chara, – As attached as I am to the concept of free speech enriching the market place of ideas, Richard Greene’s article (Opinion, July 14th) contributes nothing to the debate on Lisbon.
Firstly, on the status of the legal guarantees, these guarantees have been given the force of international law, to say that they might as well have been lodged with Leitrim County Council is to say that the Belfast Agreement isn’t worth the paper it is written on.
Moreover, once the next member state accedes to the EU – likely to be Croatia or Iceland – they will also have the force of EU law.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights has been drawn from the constitutional traditions of the member-states and has been in existence many years, without having legal force. It is now being given the teeth of treaty status to hold the EU institutions and member-states when implementing EU laws accountable to human rights standards. Just as our own government is held to the standards of the fundamental rights contained in the Irish Constitution.
Nothing in the Charter introduces abortion, and, in the unlikely instance of the question coming before the European Court of Justice, the court would be obliged to read the charter in light of the EU protocols with guarantee Irish protection for the life of the unborn.
In the same way, the guarantees also protect our right to decide our corporation tax rate. The claim that Lisbon has not affected our attractiveness as a business destination is ill-founded.
The statistic quoted of 56 per cent increase in jobs created by foreign direct investment in 2008 makes no mention of whether these occurred before or after the treaty was rejected, or whether that investment has tailed off in 2009. It is vague at best, while anecdotal evidence points towards the fact that foreign investors have been disquieted by the uncertainty that rejecting Lisbon has created.
It is correct that “not a word or a comma” of the treaty text has been altered. As it is true that not a word or a comma of the text suggests that the treaty will introduce abortion, conscription or alter our corporation tax rate.
Yet these are the myths that the No side are using to steer the debate away from the real provisions in Lisbon which allow the EU to make tangible steps in developing renewable energy sources, addressing climate change and tackling cross-border crime. – Is mise,
Madam, – I was left completely flabbergasted by Richard Greene’s unfounded claims regarding the Lisbon Treaty.
It beggars belief that he continues to insist that the treaty could open the door to abortion.
Ireland has secured a legal guarantee that nothing in this document will affect Ireland’s constitutional provisions on abortion and the family.
This will become a protocol upon enactment of the next accession treaty.
To suggest that this is merely a political promise which can easily be broken is ludicrous. Never in the history of the EU has a protocol been broken.
It is also important to point out that Ireland’s domestic position is in fact already protected in the EU context by the Maastricht Protocol (1992) on the right to life of the unborn. Mr. Greene is doing the people of Ireland a disservice by manipulating the truth to suit his own agenda. – Yours, etc,