JACK EISING,
Sir, - An article by Frank McDonald in your edition of August 22nd entitled "Ireland accused of unsustainable development" referred to the report "Telling It Like It is" by Earth Summit Ireland Ltd, which stated that over half the questionnaire responses received on the N6 Oranmore to Ballinasloe scheme had been rejected as they were not in the pre-paid envelope. This allegation is totally incorrect.
A total of 3,266 completed questionnaires were received by the consultants on the scheme. Of this total 1,615 were received in the pre-paid envelopes and 1,651 were submitted by a lobby group from the Tuam area. Three separate analyses were done by the consultants:
1. Analysis of the total response.
2. Analysis of the 1,651 responses from the Tuam area.
3. Analysis of the remaining 1,615 responses.
It was considered appropriate to do these three analyses since the respondents from the Tuam area were unlikely to be directly affected by the proposed scheme to the same extent that the other respondents would be. These three analyses are contained in the Route Selection Report for the scheme, published in August 2001. This document is available for inspection at our offices.
I have requested that Earth Summit Ireland Ltd print a public retraction of the statements in this section of the report. I consider its accusation that this office ignored over half the responses received to be a serious affront to the integrity of this office, the engineers involved in the scheme, and the consultant engineers employed to design the scheme. I would also suggest that such inaccuracies seriously undermine and call into question the credibility of the document "Telling It Like It Is". - Yours, etc.,
JACK EISING,
Senior Engineer,
National Roads Authority
Regional Design Office,
Ballybrit Business Park,
Ballybrit,
Galway.