Sir, - The IDA says it is trying to attract small-scale German industry to Donegal. Meanwhile, the number of indigenously owned Donegal companies has halved over the past 15 years. And last year Donegal actually suffered a net loss of jobs.
Surely it is time to look again at the ideas Schumacher set out in his book Small is Beautiful 25 years ago and to explore the potential of "loyalty to place". Out of little else I myself have managed to provide over 700 manyears of employment in Buncrana. And others with similar loyalties have been much more successful. Is anyone interested?
Just as Germany did a generation before us, we could surely grow our own industrialists. It may take another 25 years of enlightened policy. The alternative is another 25 years of failed quick fixes. This place is beginning to look like the Algarve, where everything of consequence belongs to a non-Portuguese. - Yours, etc.,
Brian Flanagan,
Buncrana,
Co Donegal.