Sir, – The banks’ “moral vacuum” criticised by coronor, Paul Morris (“Coroner criticises banks after man dies”, Home News, May 25th) could be equally applied across the whole system of governance in Ireland. The “Darwinian approach” has created a Dickensian society.
There was a certain irony in that on the opposite page to your report there was an advert, about the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). As a farmer in the south west, who like many others down here, has had to endure what can only be described as the year from hell; I have witnessed the hijacking of the CAP negotiations by the farming “elite”, who hope to further marginalise the smaller family farms on the western seaboard. The stated main tenet of the reform of the CAP was to “put farmers back into farming”. If the large farming organisations have their way we will all be “consigned to the devil”.
The demise of the small family farm will see the eradication of a whole way of life and will have huge reverberations on the whole of rural Ireland. The family farm was always considered to be the backbone of rural Ireland. Lose it at your peril, as sustainable agriculture is the only solution to a world limited by resources. – Yours, etc,
KATE CARMODY,
Asdee,
Listowel, Co Kerry.