Rerun one poll, rerun them all

I VOTED against the Nice Treaty last year and I do not have any objection per se to another go at the issue. After all, there has been more than one referenda on matters relating to the dissolution of marriage and the lives of our unborn children.

But what I do object to is the cynical manner adopted by this Government towards last year's result and the fact that they are reacting to the diktat of a leader of a foreign power, Instead of accepting the expressed will of the Irish people, our Government are re-running the issue at the behest of Germany's Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, who said: "The Irish people will have to decide in a new referendum." (Irish Independent, June 5, 2001).

If Mr Maurice O'Connell (TheIrish Examiner, August 28). is so upset by last year's turnout of the electorate, surely he should be calling for a re-run of the other two constitutional matters the prohibition of the death penalty and the international criminal court which were also decided on the day?