Sir, – People living in rural communities are appalled at the highly divisive and seriously inaccurate opinion piece by Seán Byrne (Opinion, May 28th).
The piece was a blatant attack on farmers and all decent people who live in rural communities. At a time when the country is on its knees, our farming and agri-food industry supports 300,000 jobs and is rightly recognised as a key to national economic recovery.
I am concerned that a lecturer in a publicly-funded third-level college would put forward such a totally one-sided argument, when all that the majority of rural dwellers want is to be treated fairly and equitably.
Why would anyone deliberately try to stoke up the old negative and outdated mentality of the urban/rural divide? If Mr Byrne looked at the analysis provided by Teagasc last week when it published the National Farm Survey, he would have seen that 35 per cent of farms are economically vulnerable. Those farms that made an income paid income tax.
Peddling biased opinions and setting one community against another will get us nowhere, at a time when everybody in Ireland needs to pull together.
Mr Byrne is determined to bring about an urban future based on densely-populated communities. It is striking that he takes no account of the views of the half of the population that lives outside the cities.
These are very tough times for the vast majority of people, no matter whether they live in cities, towns, or in the countryside. The most constructive thing Mr Byrne can do at this stage is to withdraw his comments. – Yours, etc,