GARY FITZGERALD,
Sir, - The Minister for Agriculture said over the weekend that Green Party policies would lead to a flight from the land and would decimate Irish agriculture. It's ironic that he should say so, given that there are two obvious trends in Irish agriculture over the past 30 years. The first is the very flight from the land that the Minister talked about. The second is the rise in power of food companies to the detriment of the farmers.
Fianna Fáil never misses an opportunity to tell us that they have been in power from much of the past 30 years. Will it now start to take the blame for what is wrong with Ireland? In the run-up to the next election, one thing is clear: if rural Ireland votes for a party whose policies have lead to the problems that agriculture currently faces, those problems will only get worse. - Yours, etc.,
GARY FITZGERALD, Earlsfield Court, Dublin 8.