GERRY OMALLEY,
Sir, - Sean Duffy (September 30th) suggests, with respect, that I have not "grasped the grounds" of Mr Proinsías De Rossa's concern in relation to Carrickmines Castle, the motorway and EU funding.
With equal respect, may I say that there are no grounds to grasp. Mr Duffy says: "The funding is in doubt because a 1983 report from An Foras Forbartha, which recommended that the road avoid Carrickmines Castle by running to the south, was disregarded in the Environmental Impact Assessment done in 1997." Not so.
In 1983, as manager of the Conservation and Amenity Advisory Service (CAAS) of An Foras Forbartha, I contracted Mr Paddy Healy to prepare the report. "The road" referred to in this report was not the motorway - nor indeed any motorway - but instead Ballyogan Road and its possible realignment at the Carrickmines end where it joined the Glenamuck Road.
It would seem that a misreading of the report is helping to waste everyone's time and money - and delaying the time when we can all enjoy the benefits of having completed motorways in south Co Dublin. - Yours, etc.,
K. MAWHINNEY, Clonard Drive, Dublin 16.
... ... * ... * ... * ... ...
Sir, - A Russian proverb has it: "If you keep one eye on the past, you're blind in one eye. But if you forget the past, you're blind in both eyes". - Yours, etc.,
GERRY OMALLEY, Bray, Co Wicklow.