Irish Times (unpublished) |
Invasion by concrete & CPOs |
|
Francis Street, Dublin 8. 04/07/01 Dear Sir, When a builder knocks down an old building in Dublin there is uproar on your letters pages. When a Quality Bus Corridor (QBC) is introduced your Dublin readers react with levels of anger and rage that makes them sound like Kevin Myers in a bad mood. But when farmers object to an unnecessary motorway network that will chew up 25.000 acres of virgin land, that will destroy their livelihoods and their communities, the most that Dublin can say is that they are asking for too much compensation. How can you put a financial value on someone’s home and way of life? How can you use the money a CPO gives to buy something that cannot be bought? If one single house in Dublin 4 were under threat from a Compulsory Purchase Order like 8,000 landowners in rural Ireland are, the Irish Times would crusade against the whole CPO system. Instead we get insultingly inaccurate letters like Mr Paul MacCarthy’s of July 2nd. How would he feel if his house, business and way of life were destroyed forever, and all that he was offered was the market value (subject to tax) of the land his house was on? Or worse still, if a motorway was to pass within meters of his house but not actually use any of his land, how would he feel when he was offered no compensation at all? There is a new invasion happening, and instead of Viking longships we are being attacked by concrete and CPOs. The countryside that will be destroyed belongs to you too Mr MacCarthy. Yours Faithfully, Gary Fitzgerald |