Madam, - The increasing economic, environmental and social costs of sustaining "one-off" houses in rural Ireland has been stressed repeatedly by thinking people. The arguments are solid.
Last week NCB stockbrokers predicted a 15-year boom: 700,000 more homes by 2020, double the number of cars. Even if this proves only partially true, Ireland faces an irreversible building assault on the countryside in the face of ever more liberal rural planning laws. A ban on non-local, urban-generated "one off" houses, with few exceptions, was wisely and bravely proposed in Northern Ireland recently. This step would be appropriate for the whole island. - Yours, etc,
BEN SCHAZMANN, Cedarfield Close, Drogheda, Co Louth.