Sir, – Further to "Unattractive rural towns are ultimately doomed" (Opinion & Analysis, September 23rd), if social amenities alone that were the decisive factor in younger people moving from rural towns to the cities, it would be a wonder why the fastest-growing parts of Dublin in recent decades were places such as Tallaght, which (at least initially) had little to offer in that department.
For most of my generation, the biggest deciding factor in where we will ultimately live our lives is where we can find a job. It doesn’t matter how good the social amenities are in my local town, if I can’t find employment there, I can’t live there, even if I wanted to. This is not to ignore the benefits of proper town planning, but it’s not a substitute for an economic policy that should be acting as a counterweight to the free market’s tendency towards excessive economic centralisation – nor should it ever be considered as such. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS M CREAMER,
Ballinamore, Co Leitrim.