TD Ring pointed way for tourism windfall

● Sir — The Wild Atlantic Way is making a huge economic impact on the west of Ireland from Greencastle to Kinsale. Fáilte Ireland has revealed it is generating more than €3bn per annum in tourist revenue.

While Fáilte Ireland may have launched it, the route has its origins in a spontaneous comment by TD Michael Ring when he was extolling the rugged beauty of the west of Ireland in one of his fiery speeches.

Mr Ring, who I’ve never met, was an outstanding minister for rural affairs with a passion for sustainable rural development. He deserves great credit for energising community groups and local rural entrepreneurs along the western seaboard.

Billy Ryle,

Spa, Tralee, Co Kerry

Value of a united Ireland lost in study

● Sir — Your editorial last Sunday (‘Paying the price — or not — for a united Ireland’) and Máiría Cahill’s opinion piece (‘Imperfect union risks perfect storm’) doesn’t fill the green heart with much glow. I was tempted to throw the towel in on my romantic all-Ireland dream.

There is nothing like the vulgarity of money to put one off. Who ever thought paying more in taxation was a good thing?

No disrespect to the authors of the Institute of International and European Affairs report, but they might have considered these financial considerations would be misconstrued negatively, without consideration of what we would acquire in return — six beautiful counties, rich in culture and a people with a strong work ethic. It seems we know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

Aidan Roddy,

Cabinteely, Dublin 18

Brave start by Harris bodes well at home

● Sir — Good health and the good luck to be in the right place at the right time are truly gifts of the gods. Being born in the right place may be another. Our new Taoiseach was born in Greystones, as I was 50 years before him. That is just coincidence, as is the fact Dev lived in Greystones for a while — Bean Sinéad de Valera taught Irish to my father and mother when Dev was away in the States.

Simon Harris has made a brave start by declaring we will recognise Palestine as an independent state. Here at home, reunification’s time has come. It’s time to at least begin the negotiations. Faint heart never won fair lady.

Seamus Hayden,

Ardara, Co Donegal

Public in the dark over refugee data

● Sir — Following a near threemonth struggle (including an FoI appeal) I recently obtained the 2023 International Protection Office (IPO) interview outcome figures. The breakdown is that the IPO granted refugee status to 2,472 persons (almost 50pc were either Afghani or Somali nationals), subsidiary protection to 237, leave to remain to 532 and 5,176 applicants were refused all three (1,877 Georgian cases included).

At a time when there is much furore over opting in to the EU asylum and migration pact (which will take two years minimum to take effect), there seems to be minimal political interest to query what our current asylum process, which is eating up hundreds of staff and taxpayer money, is producing.

Having worked in the area pre-retirement, I suspect the easier, safe countries are being fast-tracked at the expense of more complex cases. It should be noted that all of the 5,176 people refused can appeal the decision ahead of their file finally being considered for the issuing of a possible deportation order.

As our energetic new Taoiseach has left Helen McEntee in situ, is it too much to ask that a monthly, or at the very least quarterly, detailed report be produced to demonstrate what progress the IPO is making on the circa 18,000 backlog of international protection applicants awaiting interview? Michael Flynn,

Bayside, Dublin 13

Iona Institute fails Quinn’s own metric

● Sir — Your columnist David Quinn complains about what he perceives to be the influence campaigning groups have on government policy (‘Main parties in thrall to NGOs instead of grassroots voters’, April 7).

He further argues that these groups are not representative of the Irish public at large, as evidenced by recent referendum results.

Mr Quinn is the chief executive of the Iona Institute, a group that would also be deemed unrepresentative by his own stated standard, given that it has been on the losing side of referendum campaigns on the repeal of the Eighth Amendment and marriage equality.

Mr Quinn says politicians have become “deaf, dumb and blind” to the concerns of voters. Would he make a similar complaint if a government took the Iona Institute’s stance on social issues, which are demonstrably at odds with the will of the public?

Joe Leogue,

Cork

No mean feet to get a pleasant rail trip

● Sir — I have been an infrequent user of public transport since the pandemic. I did take an East Cork train today and sadly nothing has changed regarding what seems to be the obligatory planting of the feet, for a certain generation, immediately on the opposite seat. Michael Kenefick,

Whitegate, Co Cork