A chara, – I was shocked to read the short message from one Beairtle O Conghaile (July 22nd). Here we have somebody unashamedly admitting that he intends to signal his full agreement to the terms of a treaty, not because he has read or understood it, but because he personally has a low opinion of some of those on the No side.
Mr O Conghaile is one of a privileged minority of European citizens with a vote on this treaty. He has a responsibility to form an opinion, to decide his position on its overall benefit or otherwise to the people of Ireland and of Europe. Given the current dearth of proper debate, I fear that he may not be alone in his intention to ignore that responsibility, abuse his franchise and ultimately do a grave disservice to all his fellow EU citizens by blindly toeing the line of some party or grouping of which he generally does have a better opinion. – Is mise,
DIARMUID Ó BAOILL,
Bailie an tSaoir,
Baile Átha Cliath 16.
Madam, – A recent survey by Business & Financefound that 86 per cent of our top 500 CEOs consider ratification of the Lisbon Treaty to be either extremely important or very important for Ireland. Only 2 per cent see it as "not important".
These are the people who are vital to our future prospects – for jobs and prosperity.
For those companies considering investing in Ireland or who are presently situated here, any wavering in our commitment to the EU may affect their decision on whether to locate their operations in Ireland in the coming years.
Only recently, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland, Dr Paul Duffy, stressed the importance of a Yes vote for Ireland’s business interests, pointing out that Ireland’s success in attracting such a strong base of multinationals to Ireland is intrinsically linked to our membership of the European Union. US companies in particular are attracted to establishing European headquarters here because of our skilled labour force, excellent business environment and the ready access to European markets from Ireland.
Voting No to Lisbon would send out a strong signal to businesses in Ireland and around the world, that we are no longer committed to Europe. We would be foolish not to listen to the business community’s strong words of advice on Lisbon. – Yours, etc,