Sir, - I would like to empathise with the Attorney General, Michael McDowell, who in his address to the Institute of European Affairs became the newest member of the Government to raise qualms about the future vision of the European Union. In doing so, he highlighted the Government's disunity surrounding the European project.
"Our priority must be to take an active role in developing and articulating a model of Europe which we want to see," he said. The Government then cannot ignore the electorate's No vote, but must except it, and seek to get a better deal for Ireland in the Nice Treaty. Thus the Irish electorate should not feel guilty for saying No, instead we should be proud we exercised our views to Europe in a categorical way, and on that basis the Taoiseach should start renegotiating the treaty and stop making apologies for our decision.
"If we confine ourselves to throat clearances of disapproval, we surrender the political issue to others." As such, Mr McDowell recognises the gap between the federalist European project and what the Irish people envisage. The Irish are uncomfortable with the idea of a European super-state, which railroads over peoples' opinions as well as Irish sovereignty. And the Irish should not feel obligated to be silent by any sense of gratitude or inhibited by a sense of relative size, but instead must have its voice heard in Europe.
So the Nice Treaty cannot be go ahead until all 14 member-states ratify it, on that basis it cannot go ahead until Ireland's concerns are addressed. We mustn't allow the bureaucrats in Europe to get away with forcing through Nice without our say so.
With any other legislative measure, the Oireachtas has the power to reverse a decision with which it disagrees. A minister who makes a delegated legislative decision himself faces the sack; the decision itself faces reversal, but, in the context of the EU, "a regulation or directive is effectively irreversible, once made".
Thus the spirit of democracy and of the constitution is attacked by the power of attorney given to Government Ministers on their visits to Europe. They are effectively infallible on all decisions made on Europe, thus a sense of dictatorship is developing around the European project which promised to uphold the democratic process but instead is engaged in whitewashing the issues and using the biased law to force through its legislation good or bad.
The Oireachtas must be consulted on regulations made in Europe before they are ratified so the Irish people can really feel close to the European project instead of the estrangement that they feel now.
Mr McDowell recognised as unjustifiable the notion that we were a society of "economic integrates who, having crossed the moat, were attempting to pull up the drawbridge on other applicants". As such, he rejected the view that the Irish having done very well out of the European Union economically, are now running away when we are being asked to give something back.
We are not against the notion of enlargement in the European Union, but other issues of integration militated against our ratifying the Nice Treaty. Mr McDowell's personal views highlight the problems which the federalist European project is facing. The more it attempts to silence Ireland on the issues the more dictatorial and undemocratic it is showing itself to be.
It's time then for change in Europe and for Ireland to take a stand and not allow itself to be silenced. - Yours, etc.,
Richard Dunne, Finglas South, Dublin 11