Flooding failures

As a person who knows Mountmellick very well, I feel very sorry for the people who are suffering because of the recent terrible flooding.

During the so-called Celtic Tiger era various governments wasted money instead of looking after rural Ireland. Small towns and farming areas were completely neglected. Rivers were not maintained and that is why we have all this flooding.

Many rural side roads are in a bad state too. And rural crime became an everyday occurrence.

Small towns lost out bigtime. Mountmellick used to be a booming town known as the Manchester of Ireland. Now most people who have their own transport shop in either Portlaoise or Tullamore, because that’s where all the big shops are.

Maureen Lowndes, Geashill, Co. Offaly.