Sir, – In the days since the publication of the National Development Plan, there has been plenty of commentary from politicians and journalists about the implications for various road projects around the country.
This coverage has almost universally focused on why a given road is so important and the impact of failing to deliver it. We know that building new roads increases transport-based emissions, but what is invariably missing from such commentary is discussion of which other sectors of the economy will have to make bigger cuts instead (especially since agriculture and aviation seem off the table).
As the science clearly tells us, we’re way past the stage of being able to defer these trade-offs, so rather than just accepting special pleading for specific roads, the onus is on media organisations to ask the question: if you want to increase emissions with this road, who instead should make bigger cuts to compensate?– Yours, etc,
DAVE MATHIESON,
Salthill,
Galway.
Sir, – The much-lauded plan is hardly a wet week old when it is being changed already. Fair play to the Fianna Fáil backbencher who threatened to resign and then got his way by assurances from the Taoiseach that a bypass and upgrade which had been overlooked will be miraculously included in another plan!
If this tactic were to be employed by other disgruntled backbenchers, God only knows where the plan will end up! – Yours, etc,
TADHG McCARTHY,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – The NDP, like so much of planning in Ireland, is simply a wish list. New rail and tram links (two weeks ago it was announced that the Metro Link was to be abandoned until 2034), motorway projects (with a Minister of Transport opposed to motorways), and the Government, for political purposes, stating that because bypasses in east Cork are not in the plan, it does not mean they won’t be undertaken.
Without time-bound actions and individual accountability, artists impressions of trams running through Cork and other cities are as realistic as the aims of the National Development Plan. – Yours, etc,
JOHN LINEHAN,
Mallow,
Co Cork.