Madam, - I would urge the Government to think long and hard about the proposal to establish a "National Infrastructural Board".
The overriding philosophy behind this concept is to fast-track major infrastructural projects currently under way. These projects are of historic proportions and will establish patterns of living, communications and environmental quality that will affect future generations.
They amount to the biggest programme of infrastructural developments which have taken place in the country, bigger than the canals of the 18th century and the railways of the 19th.
Why does the Government feel they should be fast-tracked? There is no inherent guarantee that the quality will be any better or that costs will be cheaper. The Celtic Tiger has come and gone - and it operated within the current planning system.
The problems with projects such as Luas and the Dublin Port Tunnel have little if anything to do with the speed of the planning process.
I feel that many projects which were "fast-tracked" through the planning system may turn out to be of poor environmental quality and unsustainable over time.
If we are thinking over a time span of, say, 300 to 400 years, a few extra months or even a year or two is of little importance compared with getting the project right in the end.
We owe it to succeeding generations to do everything to get the big decisions correct. - Yours, etc.,
PATRICK SHAFFREY, Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin 1.