Madam, – Brendan McDonagh of Nama told an Oireachtas committee this week that some unfinished housing estates will have to be knocked down and returned to land (Front page, April 14th). This could give a new Irish phrase to the planning dictionary: “rezoning housing estates for land”.
In my experience most of the damage done was in the Leitrim, Longford, Roscommon, Cavan, Sligo areas to avail of Charlie McCreevy’s tax incentives, and many of these were built on drumlin flooded areas.
This general area was beloved of Oliver Goldsmith and we may well see his deserted villages emerge once more out of those dreary property spires. I wonder what he would say if he returned, and how he would rephrase his lines: “Ill fares the land, to hast’ning ills a prey,/ Where wealth accumulates, and men decay”?
But who will be responsible for this, and who will pay? I think you have guessed it. – Yours, etc,