Madam, - James Pike, President of the RIAI (July 8th), is pleased that the Taoiseach favours doing something about the price of building land, but his pleasure may be short-lived. The same Taoiseach said in an RTÉ radio interview about four years ago that this was his personal priority and he would do whatever it took, including a referendum, to control the price of building land. Nothing has happened yet.
I was able to buy a semi-detached house on one salary, yet my children require at least two salaries and parental input. This, as Mr Pike will know, is almost entirely because of the value created by the zoning of land - an artificial value conferred entirely by the State on the few and paid by the rest out of borrowings.
It represents an extraordinary transfer of all our hard-earned wealth to a select few and is a distortion of the common good. Just keep a close eye on the Galway tent for an update on the Taoiseach's priority. - Yours, etc,
T MURPHY, Muskerry Estate, Ballincollig, Co Cork.