Sir, – South Dublin County Council's plans to spend €19 million on a visitor centre project in the vicinity of Kilakee and the Hellfire Club to act as a "gateway" to the Dublin Mountains is, frankly, nonsense ("Visitor centre planned for Hellfire Club", March 22nd).
No “gateway” is required and there are far, far worthier and more socially useful measures on which this funding could be spent.
I can only hope that, as reported, An Bord Pleanála does submit an environmental impact assessment and the public does have a chance to object to this ridiculous scheme.
I would like to think that most Dubliners would have enough common sense to oppose it.
It’s bad enough that modern “development” in the form of houses and apartment blocks already litter the lower slopes of the Dublin Mountains. This is another retrograde step. Such a scheme as is proposed would further negatively impact on the natural beauty of this area. Nature doesn’t need anything to enhance it. Its beauty is real and immediate. However, I suspect this project has more to do with commercial opportunism (shop, café) than any actual necessity.
This type of proposition isn’t without precedent. Two decades ago a proposed interpretative centre for the stunningly beautiful Luggala area between Roundwood and Sally Gap was scrapped. The common-sense view that such a centre was unnecessary on the grounds that members of the public shouldn’t need to have nature interpreted for them is worth repeating, as it applies with equal validity for South Dublin County Council’s proposed scheme! – Yours, etc,
JD MANGAN,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.