Sir, - I wholeheartedly agree with your Editorial of March 10th that the Government has "a long-term battle to convince the public that it needs a sporting showcase on the scale of the stadium project".
On a recent poll on Questions and Answers, almost three-quarters of the respondents were against the project. No doubt the location, the suspicion of the links between politicians and vested interests, as well as the more important question of spending priorities were factors in the negative response.
Decentralisation should apply to sport facilities as well as to Government Departments if young people outside the capital are to be encouraged to participate in sport.
Far from finding any evidence that the hype employed by the Minister and other advocates of Campus Ireland is having any effect, I find the reaction at local level to be one of scepticism and silence. Aside from the stadium, the vital and overwhelming need is to provide sporting facilities at community level and within easy reach. This would, in deed as well as word, treat all the children of the nation equally. - Yours, etc.,
John F Fallon, Boyle, Co Roscommon.