Sir, - On behalf of Friends of the Irish Environment, I would like to expand on a point made by Frank McDonald about the so-called tax incentive scheme for seaside resorts (The Irish Times, August 20th).
Tax-avoidance schemes are crude but powerful mechanisms that can easily outweigh social and environmental controls. But of all of these tax avoidance schemes introduced by successive governments over the years, this must be the worst, and the most effective, in discriminating against the local residents.
It has forced up the price of land and the cost of building beyond their reach, encouraging second homes and investment-driven holiday ghettos. Like the tax avoidance scheme for forestry, it has an almost uniformly negative effect on rural social life while damaging the environment.
The rural population who bear the brunt of these plans are in no financial position to benefit from these so called "tax breaks". Meanwhile, other ways of supporting our rural communities along the Atlantic coast, such as the Rural Resettlement Scheme, remain chronically under-funded.
European law suggests that schemes like the Seaside Resort Scheme require Environmental Impact Statements just as much as individual projects. Perhaps your environment correspondent's timely series will encourage this process. - Yours, etc., Roger Garland,
Friends of the Irish Environment,
Butterfield Drive,
Dublin 14.