Sir, - When will the Supreme Court Judges in the "X" case come before the All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution? The necessary separation of functions between oireachtas and judiciary does not require isolated actions. It is impossible for the legislators to plan for right-to-life laws without understanding the mind-set of those who will interpret them.
Do the judges accept that the people and Constitution currently require the implementing of a fundamental principle that every human life is of value in itself? What principles of justice did they use in applying that principle in their incontestable interpretations of the Constitution? Do they see any connection between law and culture and between the mind of the legislator and its interpretation?
However, the judges are not the only interpreters of law. All statutory agencies do so. In some counties, for example, planning officers apply laws in a manner which makes house building impossible in rural areas. The increasing stringency and inflexibility of so many new laws in the hands of little demagogues is the real threat both to our personal freedom and each local community's influence on their own future.
When our current county manager retires in a few years' time, will his holistic view of statutory and civil life be replaced by the intensifying legalism of the new Ireland? The independence of Church and State is also being drastically eroded daily. The State is assuming control over all aspects of life including the liturgical life of the Church. The State, like the old Russian regimes, will decide the liturgical ambience within Church buildings. By what right?
Our society is now more legalistic in outlook than the Catholic Church was in its most authoritarian era. Yet, public debate is screaming for more intensive State control of every single aspect of our human existence. Personal freedoms are being eroded daily in hurricane fashion. State institutions are meant to be our servants and not our masters. But does anybody care? - Yours, etc.,
Jerry Joyce, Chairman, Clogh Parish Executive Team, Clogh, Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny.