Sir, Fianna Fail's position on bail seems to be a little at variance with the letter written by its Justice Spokesperson, John O'Donoghue TD (letters, November 5th). He seems to indicate that Fianna Fail has been consistently backing the holding of a referendum on bail, However, the facts do not back up this assertion,
When in Government it promised a bail referendum, yet failed to deliver on it. In Opposition, it has bought forward Private Members' Bills in the Dail, but now that the Government has set a date for a referendum Fianna Fail has not even appointed a director of elections, let alone run a campaign on the issue.
In contrast, Fine Gael promised in Opposition to amend the Constitution to allow the courts to refuse bail to persons charged with a serious offence, where it is considered necessary to prevent the commission of another offence by that person. Now, in Government, we are delivering on that promise.
Our referendum campaign is fully operational. We have organised a series of regional public meetings over the next three weeks which in many cases will be addressed by either the Taoiseach, or the Minister of Justice. We are also in the process of distributing 20,000 leaflets, as well as a special bail edition of our party's newsletter, Dublin Matters, to 230,000 homes in Dublin over the coming weeks, The Taoiseach has also begun a door to door canvass which all of our TDs, senators, councillors and party members will intensify over the next three weeks.
Fine Gael has always been the law and order party. The decent people of this country want results, and we have put in place a comprehensive series of measures to tackle the crime situation of which an essential piece is the referendum on bail.
This issue of bail is too important for political parties not to communicate directly with the electorate. That is what we are now doing, and we hope that the end result of this process will be a resounding "yes" vote on November 28th, which will mean tougher bail and safer streets. - Yours, etc,
Fine Gael Director of Elections,
Bail Referendum,
Leinster House, Dublin 2.