Ragwort and other lethal weeds

Madam, - That hardy annual debate about ragwort and other noxious weeds that raises its head in the media each August

Madam, - That hardy annual debate about ragwort and other noxious weeds that raises its head in the media each August. Last year Joe Duffy devoted an entire programme to it; this year it has merited an Editorial in your paper (August 21st). Even Minister of State for Agriculture, Mary Wallace, has had a say.

The various Government Departments that keep passing the buck, however, will once again be responsible for another great black hole down which wasted millions will have to be poured in the coming years. Who will be held responsible for such criminal waste?

In the UK £1.5 billion is spent annually in attempting to control (not eradicate) Japanese knotweed. It was reported last month that the cost of removing it from the London Olympic site is estimated at £100 million.

Here in Ireland, I have been monitoring the steady march and spread of invasive weeds across the countryside and waterways over the past 10 years. I have spoken to many local authorities and civil servants on the subject and have been met with the standard civil servants' response: "It's not a problem now. We will look at it when it is."

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There is one exceptional man, however: Martin Ryan of Dublin City Council's drainage department, who has instigated an eradication programme on the lower Dodder. I won't mention the upper Dodder.

Is there no one of vision and courage who will stand up and cry halt? That person will be awarded medals and have hospitals and schools named after him or her, for saving this country hundreds of millions of euro in years to come.

I will write again next August. - Yours, etc,

TOM DONOVAN, Lakelands Avenue, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.

Madam, - The contributions by Michael Viney and Frank McNally to the debate on ragwort (or "buachalán buí", as we called it in the midlands) brought me back over 70 years.

Yes, I remember the annual visit of the garda who walked the fields with my father. He never did find the noxious weeds, because my dad didn't just cut the tops off: they had to be got out by the roots. We had a wonderful implement - I think we called it "the crocodile". It was a two-handled gadget made from wood, about three feet long. The blades were serrated and pointed, so it was no problem to insert it around the roots, grip the entire plant in the teeth of this monster and tug. The plants were piled up and later burned.

This was a "damp-day job". When the weather was too poor to do other farm work, my father gave a few bob to men on "the dole" to help him at this task.

Last week, while I travelled on top of a double-decker bus from Lucan, I saw a four- or five-acre field in full bloom near the M50 roundabout - not a blade of grass (or an animal) to be seen. Is this what they call "setaside"? - Yours, etc,

COLETTE O'KELLY, Avondale Park, Raheny, Dublin 5.

Madam, - Your Editorial on dangerous weeds highlights the colonisation of rivers and canals by giant hogweed and the urgent need to eradicate it.

For Dubliners who do not wish to search along rivers and canals for this noxious weed, I suggest they look in the moat that surrounds the US ambassador's residence in the Phoenix Park, where more than 50 of these plants may be found. - Yours, etc,

FRANK FOLAN, Culmore Road, Dublin 20.