Madam, - The M3 motorway towards Tara is fast becoming a bore. Ten years ago during the Kill dump controversy, everyone who was anyone in the horse industry lined up to tell us at the public hearing that this dump was the end of our irreplaceable horse heritage in Co Kildare. Ten years on very few know where the Kill dump is and the horse industry in Kildare has rarely been better.
Conservation in Ireland is getting a bad name from those who shout loudest. We've had the ridiculous and hugely expensive court hearings and long work delays on the Carrickmines site, to which no self-respecting conservationist assigns a value of any significance. Little wonder that commuters have to endure long traffic delays and that we have no money to pay for safety belts in school buses.
Who runs the country? Is it the Government elected by the people in an open ballot or is it the self-ordained conservationists who listen to no one's voice but their own?
There will always be conflict between progress and heritage but it's time we got a grip on ourselves. Tara is not being destroyed and I know of nobody who wants to destroy it, least of all Dick Roche. The calls for his resignation are tiresome. - Yours, etc,
LAURENCE POWER, Temple Manor Green, Celbridge, Co Kildare.