Sir, – Your piece "What the Best Place to Live in Ireland award did for Westport" (Life, June 12th) is rich on input from business interests and loaded with branding slogans like "inclusivity is important".
But in assessing the best place to live in Ireland, you might question whether limits are needed on the replacement of useful local shops and traditional pubs by tourist-oriented cafes and clothes boutiques.
You might even visit the crowded the Castlebar hospital emergency department to assess the state of the health service while €250 million is being spent on a new road to reduce a car journey from Westport to Castlebar by five minutes.
For whom is Westport the “best place to live in Ireland”? For those, as you say, who relocate from Dublin or buy a second home, or for those who can no longer afford to buy or rent a home as prices are driven upward by the money arriving from the east? – Yours, etc,
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GARETH SMYTH,
Louisburgh,
Co Mayo.