Sir, - Your series "Building on the Boom" (January 4th-7th) was interesting if at times a trifle predictable. Priorities and possibilities set out by the different contributors - tackling the housing crisis, fast-tracking Luas, stamping out illiteracy - were among those that would command my full support.
What filled me with puzzlement, however, was the lack of even the mealiest mention of environmental protection. We are heading into a century of unprecedented change and challenge. Industries will open up and industries will close down. Skills will become obsolete at an alarming rate. Our capacity to compete successfully in the ever-enlarging open economy will be severely tested.
One thing is certain though: sensible people will always put a high value on clean water, clean air and food grown in healthy conditions. One would expect that a small country taking in excess of £2 billion in tourist earnings annually would put a very high premium on environmental protection. The reality appears to be the opposite.
Expert opinion confirms that about 50 per cent of all drinking water has some element of the deadly E Coli bacteria. Sources claim that 70 per cent of the piping used for public water supply in Cork is made from lead. Are we sleepwalking into a situation where signs will soon sprout on our hotel bedrooms: "Tap water not fit for drinking"?
Most of our magnificent inland lakes and rivers are now heavily polluted - in some cases they are scarcely able to sustain fish life. Every summer thousands of fish are killed through crass negligence, with whole stretches of rivers poisoned to death and, as Yeats would put it, "no knave brought to book".
Ireland is one of the worst offenders in the EU when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed we are threatened with a £2 billion fine if we fail to take corrective action. Some farmers continue to use fertilisers far in excess of the recommended amounts, thereby poisoning our soil and polluting our rivers and streams.
In his landmark report on industrial policy, Culliton recommended that it was in Ireland's own best interest to seek to set the highest attainable environmental standards. He made the economic argument. A similar public health based argument urgently needs to be made.
Finally, can I say that I don't want to be condemned to spending the remainder of my days in deepening environmental squalor.
The technology and resources are there to enable effective corrective action. Is the popular and political will there to make it happen? I very much hope so, because we should be guarding our trump card - just in case the boom is ever thrown into reverse gear. - Yours, etc., Mairin Quill,
Seanad Eireann, Baile Atha Cliath 2.