"Green" policies are destroying this country

Haven't read the entire thread yet but it doesn't surprise me that all eyes are on China here.

Ireland hasn't the population to effect change in any meaningful way. Being green though will be good for our international reputation. It will keep FDI in the coming years because international pressure will keep Multinationals environmentally honest in the future.

Let's be honest though, we export our waste, import our cars, our cheap plastic, our metal, our timber (mostly) and loads of other items. We're against corporations paying meaningful tax where the real income is earned and we sure as fcuk would be against paying a real carbon tax on products from high carbon economies.

We're a boil on the arse of world commerce.

My in no way detailed research has found a direct correlation between people who think rural housing is unsustainable and who also think 20 restaurants, 30 pubs and 40 coffee shops within 1km of each other is a fantastic idea.

There are other cities in Ireland that arn't Dublin and they don't have an €800million Luas BTW

Lets just say I strongly disagree with what you are saying; China building 43 new coal fired power stations and Americans buying 2million new pickup trucks every year are what id classify as having a very large negative impact on the environment, not a new energy efficient home in the countryside.

You should start a petition to turn off all the street lights in cities, get rid of all the fountains and return all the parks to nature, seems like all these are having a very large negative impact on the environment.

I don't understand the Green party hostility to motorways, cars arnt going anywhere in Ireland they will just go electric so we do need to improve our road infrastructure to ensure one charge gets you as far as possible, that means motorways and bypasses plus it will be another few years until all the trucks go electric so best to keep them out of towns, if they want people to cycle around towns and cities bypassing them with motorways is the best solution.

I get your point but would we not be better off getting rid of the cities if we are saving the environment at all costs? They are giant concrete monstrosities.

Overall I think we need to draw a line in how far the green agenda goes and how difficult it makes people's everyday lives, my opinion is that Ireland is already a leader in environment; loads of wind energy, small population relative to our size, no massively polluting sectors like the auto industry, temperate climate (the average American house uses twice the electricity of a European one and a lot of that is AC) and even our countryside is much more diverse as we have protected the hedgerows (drive across Europe and you'll see the likes of Germany have cleared out all the hedges so fields run right up to the road) so my question is why do we need to pay €1.65 per litre of petrol?

Its just tax for the sake of tax, if any government was interested in the environment they would have introduced subsidies for installing solar panels and a feed in tariff like the UK and Germany did over 10 years ago.

Okay but can a couple on the median income afford a ready to move into 3 bed house with a half decent BER like over C2 in that area?

€43,552x2x3.5= €304,864?

If they can't then all you're talking about is more taxes on the poors because their little brains don't know about environment things.

Well the budget isn't that limited when you look at the millions they have spent already just trying to pick a route for the Dublin Metro never mind the estimated €3billion (but in reality who know how much) it will end up costing.

I agree Ireland's public transport is lagging far behind loads of European countries but how much taxpayers money and how many years will it take to fix that? Will there be any major improvements to get people to give up their cars in any meaningful way before 2030? So if they infrastructure isn't in place and houses prices in any area with good transport links are majorly inflated (partly due to planning levies for having a public transport amenity nearby) what is the benefit of raising fuel prices for everyone?

The reality is people will move to electric cars prior to 2030 as there wont be sufficient public transport in place and/or they wont be able to afford to live in areas with public transport so we are left with electric cars that still need motorways as well as all the road haulage.

I don't necessarily blame the Green party but this green agenda of taking money from people who cant afford it just for some fairy tale dream that Ireland's emissions have any impact on global warning is madness, there needs to be a balance but instead its all take take take and its gone too far, they need to reduce the other taxes on petrol and diesel if carbon taxes are locked in.

Do you really put on extra jumpers to keep your heating emissions low?