Sir, – Linking the Wild Atlantic Way and the Causeway Coast into a single tourist trail that exploits the natural beauty of two of our island's most spectacularly beautiful landscapes is both obvious and enormously economically beneficial, as Eoin Burke-Kennedy correctly explains ("DUP must learn to embrace economic benefits of protocol", Analysis, Business, May 10th).The primary beneficiary of that linkage would be the city of Derry, where the two routes connect. Derry has the worst unemployment and poverty in the North, so we could do with the help.
Ireland’s Programme for Government recognises the value of that potential linkage. Yet Northern Ireland’s DUP Economy Minister Diane Dodds rejects the idea, on the basis that connecting the two would devalue Northern Ireland’s own tourism branding. This is a clear breach of the Belfast Agreement’s commitment to cross-border co-operation in the promotion of tourism.
It is sadly not unique for the Irish Government to show greater commitment to the northwest of Northern Ireland than does the DUP. But it is disgraceful, nonetheless. – Yours, etc,
SINÉAD McLAUGHLIN,
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(SDLP MLA for Foyle),
Derry.