DEAR EDITOR

Comhghairdeas on one of the most interesting articles you have carried in a long time by Ray Ó Foghlú. Certainly all of west Donegal will be one monotonous forest of Rhododendron ponticum in 30 years if abandonment and map acres proceed unchecked.

The challenge is changing mindsets from production. Former IFA president Tim Cullinan came to an Ardara meeting of the IFA a few years ago. I had driven him 30 miles from Gartan to Loch Barra and introduced him to the three remaining farmers on that road.

Yet at the Ardara meeting, all the lads wanted to lobby for was a subsidised wool factory. It was like blacksmiths arguing to be allowed put shoes on tractors.

Farm organisations respond to members, so they are not vested in looking beyond the immediate. That all that abandoned land is paid on as GAEC only causes embarrassment.

Teagasc knows nothing about uplands other than to tell us east Galway sheep production at Athenry is a model. Local politicians look to the next election. MEPS might be different?

Who actually could influence EU policy to give us a future that might keep the uplands grazed?