Madam, - Ryanair's Michael O'Leary believes Fine Gael's plan for a second airport for the greater Dublin area is "insane" ( The Irish Times, January 10th).
I note, however, that he rejects only the idea of a second airport for Dublin city. He had the same nuance when he answered a question on that issue at the airport conference held on October 23rd and 24th last.
He seems to be carefully avoiding condemning the idea of a second airport outside Dublin city, which might make a lot more sense than building another airport in the congested southern suburbs of the city.
The Fine Gael proposal is not site-specific. It includes consideration of a second airport located outside Dublin city, possibly in adjacent counties and serving the greater Dublin area. Bord na Móna has said it has thousands of hectares of publicly-owned land available for the purpose. This would make a new airport an attractive economic proposition compared with the unsustainable expansion of Dublin Airport on a site worth €5 million a hectare.
There can be do doubt that all these options need to be properly assessed as both parties in the alternative coalition government, Fine Gael and Labour, now demand. - Yours, etc,
MATTHEW HARLEY, Martello Court, Portmarnock, Co Dublin.
Madam, - So Labour and Fine Gael are touting a new airport for Dublin. Have they no idea of what science is now saying about the contribution of airline travel to global warming? They mark themselves as unworthy of both government and opposition by their characteristic failure to comprehend new circumstances and new ideas.
They are a generation more conservative than the loathsome British Conservative party under David Cameron. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL SMITH, Ormond Quay Upper, Dublin 7.