Madam, - John Waters begins his column of July 10th by making some useful points regarding the role of unelected persons and bodies in shaping public policy. At issue is the role of An Taisce, and in particular its extremely ill-judged objection to a planning application in Co Clare by his journalistic colleague Fintan O'Toole.
Unfortunately, instead of teasing out serious matters of public interest, he descends to exactly the kind of prejudice, stereotyping, intemperate language and incoherence which he rightly criticises.
The entire planning system, of which An Taisce is a part, is severely dysfunctional, and therefore to me An Taisce is part of the problem rather than the solution. A private members' organisation that is required by law to fulfil a controversial public obligation, with limited funding from the Government that requires it, must be in a difficult position.
However, someone has to do the job of trying to ensure compliance with good planning and conservation practice, and I suspect that the politicians who affect to despise An Taisce secretly give thanks that it is there to say and do things which are self-evidently necessary but do not go down well with certain voters. This is typical of the unaccountable shambles that is Irish planning reality.
The difficulties facing people who are seeking to buy or build affordable accommodation in the area where they would prefer to live, whether rural or urban, are attributable not to An Taisce but to decades of ad hoc "planning", typified and exacerbated by the nod-and-wink approach of local councillors, an approach of which John Waters appears to approve. And can he really be serious in his assertion of "a once-sacrosanct idea that a citizen had the right to nest where he pleased in a nest of his own designing"? Is he referring to the tiny minority who happen to own a suitable parcel of land close to where they work?
If nothing else, his article highlights once again the necessity for reasoned debate on this issue. However, the voice of reason is likely to continue to be drowned out until serious efforts are made to control land-price inflation, and to balance the needs of property developers and speculators with those of people who just want to live near where they work, in decent accommodation with access to decent services. - Yours, etc,
CHARLES BAGWELL, Millbrook, Straffan, Co Kildare.