balancing public funds
Madam, - The NRA's full-page advertisement on the
controversial M3 motorway in your edition of December
13th. may well have set out unadulterated common sense on
the issue. However, in a matter of such intense
controversy it is actually shocking that a public body
should propagandise in such a profligate manner.
The issue being debated by citizens has acquired a
quasi-political character, yet groups and individuals
opposed to this State agency's grand plan cannot have
access to balancing public funds to counter such
extravagant case-making. In other areas where the public
mind is not yet settled on issues of major controversy,
the expenditure of public and private funds is regulated
in various democratically validated ways, including the
Ethics in Public Office legislation and the establishment
of referendum commissions. The NRA should either
voluntarily observe - or else be obliged to observe -
similar standards in its use of public funds when it
seeks to persuade citizens in this democracy otherwise we
will again feel the chill of big government in our public
debates.
Yours, etc.,
HUGO BRADY BROWN,
Stratford on Slaney,
Co Wicklow.
© The Irish Times, 15th. December, 2004.
