Madam, - Your edition of April 26th reports a suggestion by HSE personnel that visitors to Temple Bar are causing pressures in the capital's five major hospitals. This is outrageous and disingenuous. It is unfortunate that Temple Bar has become the latest casualty of the HSE spin-doctors.
Temple Bar, like every city centre area in Europe, has its problems. Fortunately, most of these are minor. More than 60,000 revenue-generating visitors visit this vibrant area every day and on the whole, our visitors act very responsibly.
It would have been more constructive had the HSE taken a look at the real causes of congestion in A&E rather than resorting to cheap, knee-jerk, headline-grabbing tactics. Regardless, we will continue to work with the responsible traders who support TASCQ to make this an area of which we can all be truly proud. - Yours, etc,
MARTIN HARTE, General Manager, TASCQ (Traders in Area Supporting the Cultural Quarter), Eustace Street, Dublin 2.