A chara, - The Minister for Finance, Mr Ruairi Quinn, is badly misinformed if he regards rural water schemes as "commercial enterprises". He used this term when referring to the PDs' offer of £23 million subvention to these schemes.
Rural water schemes are voluntarily run by local groups and have saved the State millions of pounds over the years. To describe them as commercial enterprises" shows ignorance of the reality of rural living. To ask rural dwellers to pay on the double, so that Mr Quinn and his constituents can have free water, is arrogance beyond belief. - Yours, etc.,
Kiltale, Dunsany, Co Meath.