06 April 2007
	A lot of blarney Ian Matheson, Gort, Ireland

I was staggered by the amount of shoddy research and/or deliberate distortion of facts presented in the article "The Emerald Standard" by Charlene Smith (Features March 23). I should know as I am based in Ireland. I suggest that Smith get a serious knuckle-rapping for her poor journalism. Some of the more glaring examples: 1. "To fly Aer Lingus from London to Dublin costs a ridiculous €1." Yeah, that is ridiculous. That figure excludes standard airport taxes of €32 and a €4/ bag surcharge for a one-way journey (and the duration is half that of a Cape Town/ Jo'burg trip). So actually, a CT/Jo'burg trip costing R775 is cheaper in terms of cost per kilometres travelled! 2. "Starting a business in Ireland takes 19 days, compared with the world average of 48. In SA it can take a year or more." If Smith had bothered to visit the Heritage Foundation's website that she so readily quotes, she'd see that it actually takes an average of 35 days to start a business in SA. 3. "And then, of course, there is crime - or in Ireland's case, the complete absence of it." Well, I guess aside from the break-ins in my house and my house-mate's car in Limerick and the theft of my cellphone in Sligo and wallet in Shannon, I could say that there's no crime in Ireland. As for "cars and doors are not locked at night", I can assure you that none of Ireland's cities falls into that category. 4. "The [Dublin] council offers free high-speed broadband, which is, not surprisingly, eight times faster than broadband services offered by Telkom in SA." This scheme is still in the pipeline; consultants will only be reporting back on its feasibility later this year. 5. There is no mention whatsoever in this article of the billions of euros that Ireland has received from the EU as structural funding. Believe me, that sort of funding helps a lot. The gist of Smith's article is valid - SA has a lot to learn from Ireland. After all, Ireland is a First-World country. But I'm afraid the scale of her deception and glib remarks are no way to get one's point across. If you have any honour, you will get Smith to print a retraction of her many inaccurate points.