Sir, An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and several Government Ministers, including Ms Mary Harney and Mr David Andrews, have expressed frustration with the restrictions imposed on referendum campaigns by the McKenna judgment. Indeed, the Taoiseach is said to be considering ways of challenging or even reversing the McKenna judgment. That judgment laid down as a matter of principle that public money cannot be spent in order to promote one side of a referendum campaign to the detriment of the other. Recently, the Supreme Court has held that RTE must give equal air time to both sides in referendum broadcasts, a development equally regretted by the same politicians.
What did the McKenna judgment decide, that Mr Ahern, Ms Harney and other politicians find so unsatisfactory? Is it the fact that the generous flow of taxpayers' money into one-sided propaganda campaigns has ceased? Could it be that the Government feels perfectly entitled to use my money to tell me how to vote in a constitutional referendum? Could it be that they wanted to ensure the success of referendum proposals by availing of the full resources of the State to push through a Yes vote? Could it be that they wanted the No side to be swamped out by publicly-funded newspaper advertisements, national air-time and billboards?
It is hard to believe that the principles of democracy and fair play animating the McKenna Judgment have escaped our political leaders. If they have, then how can our politicians be trusted to uphold democratic principles in other areas of government? To hear them decrying the McKenna judgment when they should have apologised for the actions which made it necessary in the first place is disappointing, to say the least.
If the Government attempts to overturn or revise the McKenna judgment, it will be showing utter contempt for the Irish electorate, most of whom do not wish to be cajoled with their own money into voting one way or another in a referendum. - Yours etc., David Thunder,
Clontarf, Dublin 3.