MICHAEL SMITH,
Sir, - I could not agree more with Paul Cullen's commentary on Liam Lawlor (The Irish Times, February 5th): "If the media had put half as much effort into tracing the origins of his wealth as [they do into] chasing him around the back lanes of Lucan today, then the truth of the matter might have been revealed many years ago."
The circus surrounding Mr Lawlor is animated principally by the subconscious guilt of journalists who cannot understand that investigation was - and is now - their job.
I promoted a campaign against rezonings, including Cherrywood and Jackson Way, in Dublin county in the early 1990s. Amusingly, I remember a leader of Fianna Fáil on the county council advising me to talk to Mr Lawlor about my problems. Although Mr Lawlor wasn't even on the council at the time he was Fianna Fáil's "planning expert", she said.
Of course, Fianna Fáil was not unique. I was often in the council chamber in Dublin County Council in the early 1990s. The media have missed the similarity between the atmosphere now in county councils in Meath, Wicklow and Kildare and that in Dublin County Council then. A lot of money is being made in Dublin's hinterland in dubious circumstances. A bit of investigation would go a long way.
As one of the sponsors of the £10,000 reward that helped to bring about the Flood Tribunal, I am jaded at the Government's continuing failure to expedite appropriate investigations - and at the tribunal's own torpor.
As chairman of An Taisce I am outraged at how little progress has been made to improve the planning system in acknowledgement of the fact that the quality of life for vast numbers of people has been diminished by decisions that were taken in the interest of developers, not the public.
We were robbed. We're still being robbed. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL SMITH, Ormond Quay Upper, Dublin 7.