Sir, - According to Mark Brennock's analysis (The Irish Times, August 4th) of the constituencies where there were both Labour Party and Democratic Left candidates in the 1997 general election, Cllr Kathleen Lynch would be the most obvious candidate for a merged party in the future in our constituency of Cork North Central.
I would like to remind him that it will be our constituency that will decide who will represent us in the future. Our party has certain values and beliefs which any prospective candidate would have to adhere to if he/she wished to represent us. To quote Mr Brennock, "Labour's organisation is active and believed to be reluctant to become simply a support organisation for a DL candidate". Cork North Central has an exceptionally strong tradition of Labour party representation down the years and our organisation is united in its intentions to continue this by selecting people of the same calibre in the future.
The anticipated joining of Democratic Left with our party is to be welcomed. However, politics is about values and beliefs and those of my party are certainly not up for negotiation. Whether Cllr Lynch can represent these values for the Labour Party in Cork North central in the future remains to be seen. - Yours, etc., Alan Kelly,
Organiser, Cork North Central Labour Party, Ely Place, Dublin 2.