Madam, - You are to be congratulated on publishing the letter from Dermot C. Clarke about the advantages of dumping at sea (May 12th).
This would be a resumption of the activity sadly stopped in 1979 when the city fathers stopped dumping Dublin's waste on the south side of the port, having achieved 750 acres of reclamation since 1923.
Does your correspondent envisage dumping all this scrap in the five-metre-deep section of the bay, or in the 10-metre area? Such depths would never accommodate a Lusitania, but perhaps we might discover smaller vessels to scuttle. One feels sure that scuba diving, snorkelling and harpooning would become new underwater delights "down among the dead men".
The ensuing population boom of fish and crustaceans could be an uniquely flavoured delight for the table with all the extra ruthenium, cadmium and so on produced for the demersal food chain, to say nothing of the fly ash from our new combustor which would sit comfortably in the warm, shallow waters of Dublin Bay. Well done, indeed. - Yours, etc.,
CATHERINE CAVENDISH, Prospect Terrace, Sandymount, Dublin 4.