Sir, – Your Editorial (August 18th) was well timed. Because hay- making has been so delayed this year, more ragwort will be in the crop and more valuable stock will die next winter.
It would be a simple matter to eradicate ragwort, if rural Ireland put its collective mind to the matter. To encourage this, judges in the Tidy Towns competition should penalise towns where ragwort grows along the approach roads and give bonus points to those where it does not. The IFA should lead a vigorous campaign to get farmers to pull the weeds, both from their fields and from the roadside along their boundaries (which in most cases they own); farmers in turn would encourage children to do what was traditionally their task in the dog days of the summer holidays – getting them away from slouching over computer games.
The Department of Agriculture is clearly too busy gassing badgers to deal with this plague, so should hand over the administration of the law to the Garda Síochána. Gardaí seeking to increase the rate of reported crimes to their rural stations could issue some well-publicised summonses and the reporting of the fines arising would lend urgency to the IFA campaign. The National Roads Authority and county councils must be encouraged – the introduction of personal fines on county councillors and senior NRA management under the law would show quick results. One year’s seeding may be seven years’ weeding, but I have no doubt that if this course were to be followed we would be free of the pest within a decade. – Yours, etc,