Irish Election - Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs

Labour recently came out with their new energy policy document . Now it had a few interesting bits and pieces and lots of generic waffle. But they do talk about Nuclear power. We consider that nuclear power is not an option for Ireland at present on financial,environmental or technical grounds. Now that really doesn’t tell [...]

[edit: We were 2 days ahead of the Indo and unlike them, we provide original sources for the quotes.  Read on ...] The Cork flood.  From the technical yet fascinating “Flood risk management through reservoir storage and flow control” (2001) by J. Fitzpatrick and T. Bree of ESB International – A study was undertaken by [...]

Another day another Labour press Release to look at. UK nuclear plans, a major worry There are still many unanswered questions about, for example, the link between the incidence of particular cancers in Co Louth Interesting statement depends on how you define the word unanswered.

So for Europe to fight Climate Change we need the Lisbon Treaty. Are so the story went. Duncan Stewart, Spokesperson for the Environmental Campaign for the Alliance said: “Climate change is the most pressing challenge facing humanity. Ireland cannot solve this problem on our own, it is only as part of a strong and effective [...]

From RTE The Government jet, with the Taoiseach and 11 others on board, was struck by lightning this afternoon. The Gulf Stream jet, with eight passengers and four crew, left Dublin this afternoon and was on its final approach to Belfast City Airport when it was struck Flying Dublin to Belfast dear god

The new inside out is available for download, sorry for missing last week. This week the voice you hear is my own (go easy please). We are looking at Climate Change so hop over an have a look.

Last week the prospects for an alternative Government – already dealt a mortal mathematical blow by the electorate – finally bit the dust with the formation of a Fianna Fail/Green/PD/Bits & Bobs coalition. The role of the PDs is likely to be incidental, unless of course you’re waiting on a hospital trolley for treatment, while [...]

They are back to old form, not bothering with the online version. So we are stuck with a press release. Much of this is in the manifesto from last Sunday. “Crucially, we believe that environmental sustainability can be delivered in a way that doesn’t damage the economy,” he [McDowell] said. To be fair, they have [...]

The Greens launched their tax and economic policy this morning. It is interesting to note, first off, that the Green Party reckon growth forecasts should be no higher than 4% over the coming years. The PDs on Sunday used 5%+ and I think FG and Labour had a similar figure.

Enda Kenny signs his contract with the people, but has he signed a carbon offset contract. From RTE it says he is going to travel 20,000KM. Which if he is travelling in one of the Fine Gael SUV’s will produce 6,038 tonnes of CO2. Not including the CO2 of the rest of his posy travelling [...]

Simon has been harping on about cars and power stations for ages and he might just have to vote labour for it. They released their environment policy earlier today (well, yesterday at this rate) with a couple of eye-catching proposals which I think are a good idea. Bertie has already stressed the “fourth level” factor [...]

I am sure that much will be written about Michael O’Leary announcing €10 flights to America and how it is terrible and how we should not fly due to climate change and all that. But what people miss is that we need to maintain and grow Air travel.

Yesterday the Green Party called for what seems a sensible approach to CO2 emissions. It would commit all parties to a CO2 cut of around 3% no matter who arrived in government. Looking at recent EPA reports which suggest that we are letting our own CO2 issues get a little out of hand, and failing [...]

The EPA released a report looking at the impact of climate change on Ireland in the coming years, since its only 30 pages long, I recommend you read it. However below the fold I have copied the table in the report looking at likely outcomes from temperature changes in Ireland. By the way, that sea [...]

Recent weeks have seen Fine Gael and Labour publish policies on a range of issues, while the Government’s NDP will more or less serve as Fianna Fail’s election manifesto. Although the pollsters have yet to conduct in-depth issue surveys in advance of the election, it seems a fair bet that health, education and lifestyle issues [...]

I didn’t intend writing about the Environment this week, however the conference in Nairobi on the effects of climate change has put the environment at the top of the political agenda, albeit only for a brief period. Yet, here in Ireland, the main political parties continue to ignore the importance of this issue.