Supreme Court never ruled on Lisbon protocol

DESPITE Donal O’Driscoll’s assertion (Letters, January 5), the Irish Supreme Court never adjudicated on protocol 35 to the Lisbon Treaty.

Our Supreme Court made its own decision in 1992 in the ‘X Case’ to permit abortion in very limited circumstances under Article 40.3.3 of the constitution, “where there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother”.

To imply that the EU is somehow responsible for such a decision is nothing short of disingenuous. It was a judgment made by our own domestic courts and not a ruling imposed from outside.

Mr O’Driscoll goes on to ask what way the European Court of Justice (ECJ) would rule on the “the taking of unborn human life”? This question is completely invalid, however, as protocol 35prevents the court from ruling on these matters in relation to Ireland. Protocol 35 states that nothing in the treaties shall affect the application in Ireland of Article 40.3.3 of the Irish constitution.

Ireland’s constitutional position on abortion cannot be affected by ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. There is simply no room or scope for judgment by the ECJ or any other court — it is a matter for Irish law and Irish law alone.

Secondly, the ‘plan’ Mr O’Driscoll alleges was devised by President Sarkozy was in reality drafted by Irish civil servants in Dublin. This plan was then presented as a fait accompli to the 26 other member states. All the concessions, bar the commissioner issue, were already included in the original document, hence the degree of fantasy politics involved in the “negotiations”.

Finally, Mr O’Driscoll attempts to create a false opposition between Irish and EU citizenship, as if one is set against the other. The simple reality is we are both Irish and EU citizens, reflecting Ireland’s central role at the heart of Europe and also drawing on a millennial tradition of Irish engagement in Europe. Beginning with Irish monks founding monasteries throughout Europe in the first millennium, continuing with the Wild Geese of the second millennium and now the EU of this millennium, we have always been committed Europeans.

To be Irish is to be European. I place my utmost faith in the Irish people in this time of economic crisis. I trust we will have a full and mature debate on the text of the Lisbon Treaty itself and that we will not damage the national interest by allowing ourselves to succumb to the scaremongering and misinformation which masqueraded as debate in the last Lisbon campaign.

Colm Burke MEP

Washington Street

Cork