Sir, - You report (March 17th) that the ICTU sent a submission to the All-Party Committee on abortion (curiously described as a "key" submission by your reporter) recommending legislation in line with the X case. The ICTU is described as representing over 600,000 workers - but at the time of their submission I was a member of a union affiliated to Congress and nobody asked me for my opinion. So who exactly are they representing, apart from a clique at head office?
They are certainly out of sync with the vast majority of the submissions which are in favour of a complete ban.
And what business have they interfering in such a contentious social issue when they know, unless they are completely blinkered, that there isn't a consensus among their members? If they wish to infer anything, then, based on a consistent trend in opinion polls among the public at large, they must assume that there would be a majority in favour of solving this problem by referendum. - Yours, etc.,
Brendan O'Regan, Arklow, Co Wicklow.