Sir, - So the Department of Defence has finally come clean and admitted that Gormanston Aerodrome is to be turned into a housing estate.
Gormanston is not merely part of Irish aviation history; it is a valuable asset which could have been developed as an east-coast airfield to supplement Dublin Airport, which looks set to drive out all business and general aviation when it gets its new runway.
When rumours of the sale were first mentioned in a local newspaper, the authorities denied it. In fact, in July 1999, they advertised for tenders from interested parties for proposals to set up a flight-training organisation at Gormanston. Several airlines expressed an interest in this possibility, as it would mean that large amounts of money would be spent within the State instead of at training organisations abroad.
It would now appear that this was only a smokescreen. I'm sure that any company that wasted time and money on preparing such proposals must be wondering whether it has any recourse for having been misled in this way.
The Air Corps will, of course, continue to have a base at Baldonnel. Otherwise, where would it operate the aircraft to be used as personal runabouts for politicians, as has been so apparent in the past?
Regardless of how much goes to the Defence Forces, it's not the whole story. Such a massive development is bound to make quite a few personal fortunes and, given the revelations at the various tribunals, what safeguards are in place to see that abuses don't take place here?
Given Government's disregard of procedure when donating taxpayers' money to the GAA, I doubt that any such safeguards will exist. And Fianna Fail's "partners" in government, the Puppet Democrats, are certainly not going to rock the boat. - Yours, etc.,
Robert Power, Castlefarm, Swords, Co Dublin.