In a letter to the Sunday Tribune published 9 August, Pat the Cope Gallagher makes reference to the so-called "legal guarantees" that his administration claims addresses people's concerns over the Lisbon treaty.

His comments are a deliberate attempt to mislead the public in the run up to the second Lisbon treaty referendum. The legal guarantees that he makes reference to are nothing of the sort and are merely empty political promises from unreliable and untrustworthy politicians and bureaucrats at both Irish and European level.

This is a deliberate tactic to deceive the public into thinking that they are voting on something different in this second referendum. It is an attempt by them to make people believe the treaty has somehow been altered.

However, nothing has changed in this treaty. Not a single word, comma or full stop has been changed. These "guarantees" are not included in the treaty. They are not added as protocols to the treaty. Therefore they have no legal force and they do not override the actual contents of the treaty itself.

This deliberate attempt to mislead and deceive the public, coupled with their refusal to accept the democratic rejection of the treaty last year, reveals clearly the contempt with which the European Union and the Fianna Fáil-led administration view the Irish people and the notion of democracy itself.

Micheál Cholm MacGiolla Easbuig,

Eirígí,

Tír Chonaill.