Sir, – Readers would have been better served if Frank McDonald had taken the time to speak to the business owners who are left in Dún Laoghaire and asked them what their opinion was of the seven years Owen Keegan has spent as county manager: I suspect he would have been given a more balanced and less one-sided view than the one he expressed in his article (Irish Lives, June 8th).
If that was too much trouble he could have counted the 60-plus shops now lying vacant in George’s Street, or the scandalous waste of ratepayers’ money on unnecessary “road improvements” such as Killiney Towers or Monkstown Farm and the aggressive parking wardens waiting to pounce on the unfortunate motorists who want to spend their money in the few shops or businesses left in Monkstown, Dún Laoghaire or Blackrock.
Mr McDonald praised Mr Keegan for being a pioneer in cycling to work since the mid-1990s. This may come as a surprise to Mr McDonald, but people have been using bicycles for transport for quite some time now. As a rate-payer, I couldn’t care less if Mr Keegan went to work stark naked on a spacehopper so long as he did a decent job when he got there.
Maybe Mr McDonald should look at the cycle lanes installed by Mr Keegan: while they may have increased in number anyone who uses a bike could testify to the dreadful quality of their surface.
As a business owner I can say that Mr Keegan’s departure is a good thing, our gain is Dublin city’s loss. – Yours, etc,
AIDAN COYLE,
Springhill Park,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.