Madam, - So the floodgates have been opened to the people of Northern Ireland to destroy their landscape with one-off housing following yesterday's High Court ruling.
Northern Ireland is a potential tourist gem with the countryside more or less intact. In Northern Ireland, as in the rest of the UK, the majority of people live in towns where infrastructure and public transport can be easily provided. One-off housing will bring the misery of long-distance commuting, water pollution, habitat loss. Have they learned nothing from the environmental and planning screw-ups of the Republic or does farmers' greed for selling sites rule the roost?
They have a functioning democracy only a short time and it looks like it won't take them long to catch up with our low standards.
- Yours, etc,
GAVIN TOBIN, Celbridge, Co Kildare.