Sir, – Like all the contributors I’ve read and heard, I also wish for an environmentally, economically and socially sustainable society, but there are no simple solutions. What we need are some serious discussions and not hopeful generalities and partisan dogma.
To take one example, I would like to hear the Green Party view of the current National Development Plan, Ireland 2040, which foresees an additional million inhabitants of this State in the 25 years from 2015.
How can we expect to achieve our basic environmental commitments with the economic activity behind this growth, much less achieve aims for quality of life and biodiversity?
On the other hand, how do we pay for a “just transition” without the economic development?
To be fair to the Greens, Fine Gael will, as usual, be concerned with how we manage to pay for everything without any extra tax on the top 10 per cent in society, while Fianna Fáil will try to dodge the issue, and Sinn Féin will say whatever it thinks its current target demographic wants to hear. – Yours, etc,
LIAM MULLIGAN,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.