Madam, - I read with interest the letter of March 27th from Gavin Barrett, senior lecturer in European law at UCD, clarifying the issue of Ireland's entitlement to a Commissioner.
There is another European legal matter which requires clarification. It concerns the European Court of Justice decision in the "Laval" case last year, which found against Swedish workers who were preventing lower wage Latvian workers from accessing a building site. Jack O'Connor of Siptu was quoted in The Irish Times as saying the ECJ decision might influence some trade unionists to vote against the Lisbon Treaty.
It occurred to me that if Article 28 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (the fundamental right of collective action to defend employees interests), as proposed by the Lisbon Treaty, had been in force at the time of the Laval case, it might have influenced the decision. Perhaps Mr Barrett could give his opinion on this? - Yours, etc,
DAVID CAMPBELL, Springfield Park, Killiney, Co Dublin.