IN his letter (September 22), Daniel Harrington of Cóir says “the EU court, not the Irish people, will have the power to decide on important moral issues, such as abortion”.

A GROUP of US companies based in Ireland, including Intel, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft, have pleaded for a Yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty “for the sake 300,000 jobs”.

PRO-LIFE campaigners have clashed over whether the Lisbon Treaty will force Ireland to compromise its ban on abortion.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen said it is “crystal clear” that the issue of abortion does not arise in the Lisbon Treaty, as No campaigners vowed to make it a central issue between now and the October 2 vote.

IBEC has said that the claim from anti-Lisbon Group Coir on its posters that the Lisbon Treaty will result in the minimum wage in Ireland being reduced to €1.84 per hour was "a blatant lie, without foundation and an insult to the intelligence of Irish voters".

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has downplayed suggestions that Fianna Fáil’s massive unpopularity will affect how people vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum.

LABOUR leader Eamon Gilmore is refusing to accept the yes side is losing in the Lisbon treaty campaign.

I FIND it highly irresponsible that Cóir should deliberately try to derail an informed debate on the Lisbon Treaty.

THE Lisbon treaty does not directly affect the minimum wage of workers in Ireland, the Referendum Commission said yesterday.

VOTE ya says Paul McGrath. Vote ya says Paul McGrath.

ANTI-LISBON treaty group Coir’s poster campaign was condemned by Minster for European Affairs Dick Roche, who said the group was “trading on mis-truths and misrepresentation of people’s fears”.

An umbrella group of more than 50 business and professional organisations said today said that the claim from anti-Lisbon group Coir that the treaty will result in the minimum wage being reduced to €1.84 per hour was without foundation and an insult to the intelligence of voters.

A ROW between Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin and the most prominent anti-Lisbon campaign group has deepened over its ties with anti-abortion activists.

YOUR report headlined ‘Tears and tantrums at Lisbon hearings” (November 21) did less than justice to Cóir and to those who had misgivings about the Lisbon Treaty and voted no.

THOSE who are concerned with the absence of ‘Christian values’ in the Lisbon Treaty would do well to remember that Hitler and his Nazis were purported Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, while the Czar of Russia, deposed in the revolution of 1917, was another whose ‘Christianity’ did little to benefit the serfs.

IT’S refreshing to see Fine Gael’s Lucinda Creighton admit that the Lisbon Treaty was lost in part because voters had concerns about moral and social issues.

LAST Monday evening the leader of the Libertas group, Declan Ganley, was the celebrated guest of right-wing British Tories at Westminster.

ONE of the world’s most famous surrealist paintings, by Belgian artist René Magritte, depicts a pipe with the words underneath: “ceci n’est pas une pipe” — this is not a pipe.

FIANNA FÁIL knows scaremongering when it sees it. After all, the party has done a bit of scaremongering itself over the years. None more so than in the final days of campaigning prior to the referendum on abortion in 2002.

THE three chimpanzees have been peering down at me lately from various lampposts. Very cute they are too, placed there courtesy of Dublin-based group Cóir, which claims a membership of 2,000 people. But the Captive Animals Protection Society is not very happy.