Bill to bring the clocks forward GMT+1

Ruudi_Mentari

Too much darkness is depressing in the winter either way; so lighten the load on the people that have to get up early I say

hfallada

The time needs to stay the same for the thousands that work in multinational companies that phone the us and conference call constantly. One of the reasons why Ireland is so attractive to the us is the fact we are only about 5 hours ahead of NYC. Plus the Americans do time change.


But the changing the time will never happen as Ireland generally mirrors uk policies on things like this.

jester77

Won't someone think of the microwave clocks :eek:

kylith

Brighter evenings, but surely darker mornings.

af_thefragile

We should just drop the whole time changing business alltogether and stick with the local time. And bright nights are annoying. It should be dark by 10pm!

kraggy

kylith wrote: »

Brighter evenings, but surely darker mornings.

Precisely.

kneemos

kylith wrote: »

Brighter evenings, but surely darker mornings.

Put the clocks back in the morning and foward in the evening,more daylight for everyone.

Feathers

If we change & Britain don't, it won't make sense to have something that's called 'central European time' on the two edges of Europe & not on an island in between

We should introduce Western European Time! (That just happens to be the same as CET). I think the WET acronym would suit too :pac:

Agricola

Prefer it as it is. After a few months of long days in the summer time, its nice to have the dark creeping in around 4/5pm in winter. Summertime is for going out to do things in the evenings, winter is for hibernating. Its the Irish way! The short days do go on abit too long maybe, but Id rather that than it being dark at 9/10am.

Shamrock231

Reading then proposed bill the suggestion is to be in GMT +1 in Winter and GMT +2 in Summer, not GMT +1 all year around.

Pumpkinseeds

At a time when the country doesn't have a pot to proverbial in our politicians are debating a motion on whether or not to spend 3 years seeing if leaving our clocks ahead by an hour is worthwhile. If it was and they wanted to keep to that time they would then have to seek approval from every other EU member country, individually. The EU states that all EU countries must move the clocks forwards and backwards on the same day at the same time. They acknowledge that this proposal is unlikely to pass.

So my question is what fcukwit came up with this proposal and should our paid political representatives not be spending their time more productively on practical issues that actually matter to this country

Beefy78

LoLth wrote: »

for business purposes... why not just change the workday to 8-4 instead of 9-5 so its the same as CET? Changing a timezone seems a bit drastic imho.

This is a brilliant idea.

The Backwards Man

bilston wrote: »

Yep.

It's not something NI could really follow anyway as it would mean it would be dark until about 10am in the morning in December.

Yeah, because the most northerly part of the island is in Northern Ireland, isn't it?

wandatowell

I used to love my walk to school,

Met two friends along the way and we always strolled in at 09:05, like badasses.


You cant get more badass than being 5 minutes late for English class

Fratton Fred

So to put this in to context, in December instead of being pitch black, cold and miserable at 5pm, it will be just dark, cold and miserable.

Whoopdy ****ing doo!

dd972

anyone thought of the mass stampede from Dundalk to Newry to get more drinks in before their closing time !

kneemos

wandatowell wrote: »

I used to love my walk to school,

Met two friends along the way and we always strolled in at 09:05, like badasses.


You cant get more badass than being 5 minutes late for English class

Carrying out drive by shootings in the hood?

The Cool

Ah jaysis lads are the mornings not painful enough?!?!

Inbox

Not in my backyard!!

wandatowell

kneemos wrote: »

Carrying out drive by shootings in the hood?

Not with the potholes down here in East Cork bud, You could hit sh*t I tells ya!!

kraggy

Shamrock231 wrote: »

Reading then proposed bill the suggestion is to be in GMT +1 in Winter and GMT +2 in Summer, not GMT +1 all year around.

Right, so that basically means Irish time + 1.

Presently, Winter = GMT
Summer = GMT + 1

So the new times would mean it would get dark an hour later than present.

Presently, it gets dark around 5.30pm in Winter and 10pm in Summer (depending on where you are in the country).

New times would mean it would get dark

Winter at 6.30pm
Summer 11pm

I think it would be great.

In Winter, yes it would be dark going to school/work. But in summer the sun would still rise as early 6.10am so that wouldn't affect anyone really.

Imagine a fine summer's evening of drinking cans by the river/in the park and it bright til 11pm?!

Bring it on I say.

EDIT: Thread title needs changing. GMT + 1 is our current summer time. Thread title should read "Irish time + 1"

wandatowell

kraggy wrote: »

Imagine a fine summer's evening of drinking cans by the river/in the park and it bright til 11pm?!

Is that the only benefit you can think off????

Fair enough, I agree with but still....................:D

languagenerd

There was a rally in Spain recently to do the opposite, and move into GMT. It was unsuccessful, though it'd probably make more sense there, considering how far west most of Spain is compared to Central Europe. It wouldn't make sense for us to move into a timezone in line with countries that are two/three longitude lines east of us...

But, seriously... do they not have more important things to be worrying about in the Dáil?!!!!

Elmer Blooker

languagenerd wrote: »

It wouldn't make sense for us to move into a timezone in line with countries that are two/three longitude lines east of us...

But, seriously... do they not have more important things to be worrying about in the Dáil?!!!!

exactly, time zones exist because the earth isn't flat, someone should tell Mr publicity stunt Broughan that. The USA seems to function on three different time zones.
Anyone who wants darker mornings is a moron.

limitedIQ

we should just put them forward a full 24hrs, that would really give us a headstart in business

mutley18

Yawn. Make it interesting and whack them forward 12 hours. People getting up at 8pm for work, drunks falling out of the pubs into the streets at 2pm, and all the kids tucked up in bed for 9am.

Cody Pomeray

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

If it was and they wanted to keep to that time they would then have to seek approval from every other EU member country, individually. The EU states that all EU countries must move the clocks forwards and backwards on the same day at the same time.

I don't think that is a serious concern, Portugal altered its time zone back around 2002.

should our paid political representatives not be spending their time more productively on practical issues

This is an issue that is drowning in practicality. It makes it easier for business people to fly out of dublin or Cork and conduct their business on the same day in mainland Europe, and especially further into Central Europe. It brings us a bit closer to a 'single market' for time.

There are also practicalities in terms of lengthening the exposure to daylight for the tourist industry, especially on the fringes of Summer - tour companies, golf courses, and shopfront enterprises could all benefit, as could the retail trade more generally during Winter.

The last major practical issue relates to quality of life. People would spend less daylight working in an office or a work environment, and mazimise their exposure to daylight after work, when they can engage in family or personal outdoor activities. The same applies to school children. They don't particularly need it to be bright at 9am. But the longer it stays brighter after school, the more encouraged they can be to participate in sports all year round.

To suggest that this idea is not a practical suggestion is quite wide of the mark.

It's a very 'bright idea' altogether.

R P McMurphy

Alan Shatter - Minister for Justice & Equality and Minister of Defence , and now also Minister of time. Is there no end to the man's talents

CrabRevolution

Before last september i wouldnt have cared about this, but i started commuting to college, so was getting up at 6:30 every morning in total depressing darkness.

For the 1st time in my life i actually looked forward to the clocks going back in october as it meant the sun was out an hour earlier in the morning.

Getting dark early in the evenings is bad alright, but waking up in the dark is much much worse in my opinion. Felt infinitely better when i started waking to sunlight.

Basicaly i'd gladly give up the ability to drink cans to sunlight for an extra hour (wtf sort of reason is that anyway?) in return for my precious sunlight on winter mornings.

mynameismud

kraggy wrote: »

Right, so that basically means Irish time + 1.

Presently, Winter = GMT
Summer = GMT + 1

So the new times would mean it would get dark an hour later than present.

Presently, it gets dark around 5.30pm in Winter and 10pm in Summer (depending on where you are in the country).

New times would mean it would get dark

Winter at 6.30pm
Summer 11pm

I think it would be great.

In Winter, yes it would be dark going to school/work. But in summer the sun would still rise as early 6.10am so that wouldn't affect anyone really.

Imagine a fine summer's evening of drinking cans by the river/in the park and it bright til 11pm?!

Bring it on I say.

EDIT: Thread title needs changing. GMT + 1 is our current summer time. Thread title should read "Irish time + 1"

So what time would the six o clock news be on at?

BraziliaNZ

this comes up errr now and again and we ne'rrrrr do anything about it. I absolutely f**king hate winter time, depresses the hell out of me. Why cast this curse and burden upon the populace? Why?????

WIZE

mynameismud wrote: »

So what time would the six o clock news be on at?

At 6:01 as normal

Radiosonde

"If the aim is to have an extra hour of daylight in the evening, rather than the mornings, this could be achieved without legislation by getting up, going to work and finishing work an hour earlier" said Shatter.

I f****** hate this guy.

--Kaiser--

Who's this Bill person and what does he want to do with my clock?

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

I think we should not put the hour back in winter time so the clocks neither go forward nor back.

Having an extra hour of brightness in the evenings will benefit most of the population. It was always crap coming out of school in the dark during December, even this one hour change would make a difference.

Not changing the hour for winter would make us the only country in Europe not using that system so I'd like to suggest we call it 'The Mystical Paddy Time Zone'.

BrokenArrows

It would be great in the summers but suck ass in the winter.

Sun rise would be way too late.

BrokenArrows

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

I think we should not put the hour back in winter time so the clocks neither go forward nor back.

Having an extra hour of brightness in the evenings will benefit most of the population. It was always crap coming out of school in the dark during December, even this one hour change would make a difference.

Not changing the hour for winter would make us the only country in Europe not using that system so I'd like to suggest we call it 'The Mystical Paddy Time Zone'.

TMPTZ. Not exactly smooth.

syklops

Radiosonde wrote: »

"If the aim is to have an extra hour of daylight in the evening, rather than the mornings, this could be achieved without legislation by getting up, going to work and finishing work an hour earlier" said Shatter.

I f****** hate this guy.

I don't like him either but he has a point.

There's an awful lot of people on this thread who seem to think we will get an extra hour in the day.

This is an issue that is drowning in practicality. It makes it easier for business people to fly out of dublin or Cork and conduct their business on the same day in mainland Europe, and especially further into Central Europe. It brings us a bit closer to a 'single market' for time.

How does it make it easier? The day will be the same length, it will just get brighter and darker at different times. I have done numerous business day trips to the UK and mainland Europe. What time it was going to get dark was never a factor on my travel arrangements.

There are also practicalities in terms of lengthening the exposure to daylight for the tourist industry, especially on the fringes of Summer - tour companies, golf courses, and shopfront enterprises could all benefit, as could the retail trade more generally during Winter.

Again, how? Tourists are on holiday, they can get up earlier. How could the retail industry do better in Winter?

The last major practical issue relates to quality of life. People would spend less daylight working in an office or a work environment, and mazimise their exposure to daylight after work, when they can engage in family or personal outdoor activities. The same applies to school children. They don't particularly need it to be bright at 9am. But the longer it stays brighter after school, the more encouraged they can be to participate in sports all year round.

Exposure to light in the winter is far more important for mental health than in the summer time, when it is in abundance(Not thats ever in abundance in Ireland). Adding an hour in the winter means many people will be going to work in the dark and going home in the dark. 3-4 months of basically no light in the winter for an extra hour of daylight in the summer is ludicrous.

For our climate, a practical solution would be to stagger working hours over the course of the year. Spring/Summer are seasons of growth, rebirth and winter is a time for hibernation. A smart approach would be to mirror that. People are more energetic in summer, more productive, winter, people fall ill, are run down, tired and cold. However I can't see that kind of joined up thinking being employed in the near future. In the meantime, leave them as they are until the so called benefits can be proven.

Ash.J.Williams

Nobody has mentioned what effect the brighter evenings would have on climate change, Dublin is already running out of water!

The Backwards Man

If it takes an hour and a half to go from Dublin to Belfast now, there will be enormous confusion when it starts taking half an hour to go one way, and two and a half hours to go the other.

wexie

The Backwards Man wrote: »

If it takes an hour and a half to go from Dublin to Belfast now, there will be enormous confusion when it starts taking half an hour to go one way, and two and a half hours to go the other.

sure we can just average it no?

Anyone

One hour forward? Feckin government even stealing our sleep now....

yoke

Bill to bring the clocks forward GMT+1

that is just dumb.

if some people have customers who start at 8am, maybe those people should change their shifts to start at 8am.

If a proper medical study concludes that everyone would benefit from an earlier start to the day, then perhaps legislation should be enacted to enforce this - however it makes no sense to "change the clocks themselves" to try and enforce this as that seems quite stupid.

The only sane alternative is that we completely do away with regional timezones, and just start using some standard time like UTC across the world. 12:00 would no longer be "midday" in most places, but things would probably be fine apart from that.

-Sam

wes

My managers office is on the continent, and the 1 hours time difference make little difference to our team in Dublin. I don't see this as any kind of issue.

mynameismud

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

Who's this Bill person and what does he want to do with my clock?

Its Bill Roache and he wants to clocks to go back about 50 years so he can check for I.D

kraggy

syklops wrote: »

I don't like him either but he has a point.

There's an awful lot of people on this thread who seem to think we will get an extra hour in the day.



How does it make it easier? The day will be the same length, it will just get brighter and darker at different times. I have done numerous business day trips to the UK and mainland Europe. What time it was going to get dark was never a factor on my travel arrangements.



Again, how? Tourists are on holiday, they can get up earlier. How could the retail industry do better in Winter?



Exposure to light in the winter is far more important for mental health than in the summer time, when it is in abundance(Not thats ever in abundance in Ireland). Adding an hour in the winter means many people will be going to work in the dark and going home in the dark. 3-4 months of basically no light in the winter for an extra hour of daylight in the summer is ludicrous.
For our climate, a practical solution would be to stagger working hours over the course of the year. Spring/Summer are seasons of growth, rebirth and winter is a time for hibernation. A smart approach would be to mirror that. People are more energetic in summer, more productive, winter, people fall ill, are run down, tired and cold. However I can't see that kind of joined up thinking being employed in the near future. In the meantime, leave them as they are until the so called benefits can be proven.

More people would benefit than wouldn't. Not everyone works up until 6 or 7pm. Many people finish work at 4.30 or even 4pm. Those people, and the kids going to school, would be better off if their first hour of the day in work/school were dark if it meant that they'd have an extra hour of daylight in the evening when they got home.

Even someone who works until 5pm would at least get an hour or 1.5 hours of daylight after work rather than no daylight after work as they have under the current system.

Teyla Emmagan

All I want is more daylight in the evenings in winter. Every year is a marathon ordeal waiting of vitamin d deprivation. I am all for anything that changes that!

backboiler

awec wrote: »

Would this mean you'd have to change your watch when you cross the border?

That's why it has to go to the Dept of Justice, don't you know?
The minister will have to arrange for Army+Garda checkpoints on all border roads to check our watches, and don't forget the car clock too.
Just think of the money it could raise through fines for non-compliance!

wyrn

I'm sick of this argument. I want it to stay the same.
First thought I had when I heard was, is the politician a farmer.

Anyway, for business purposes it doesn't make a huge impact on working with our European partners. However, do we want a bigger time gap between us and the States seeing as we have so many of their European HQ's here?

Personally, I find it better to have extra light in the morning than in the evenings. I would be much more in favour of the 8 - 4 working day.
If you look at the sunset times for November 2013, it's about 4:30 - 15:56. An extra hour to 5:30 or 4:56 would make very little difference to most office workers.

Catari Jaguar

Waking up in the dark is fcuked up. It's unnatural. Getting up when it's bright would work wonders for people with SAD. Nevermind the long stretch in the evenings, all you do is watch TV anyways. Go for a walk or have lunch outside if you need extra light during work hours. Clocks need to be so that we have more light in mornings and European business can **** off, in Spain & other hot countries loads of shops close up during the day for siestas so obviously they don't care about business hours. /Rant.