"Green" policies are destroying this country

That's Switzerland, not Ireland.

I've been all over Switzerland on the bike. Their way of living is VERY different to ours, dictated primarily by the terrain they're living in (Mountains)

In Ireland, the needs of people in Cities/Rural is nearly the same, the issue is rural people have to travel further to get those services, but will still travel to get them.

Fixing is our Carbon Footprint is easy, it's actually a piece of p!$$ to do but no government wants to do it.

It probably wouldn't cost that mush either.

For starters, all new house builds need one of the Roof sides south facing and covered in solar. That should really have been made regulation by now. It would be significantly cheaper to do it in bulk during the build of the house rather than retro fitting it after. Solar panels themselves are cheap

The ESB needs to get the finger out and get the cables out charging stations in forecourts, my understanding is All the petrol stations are ready to go as regards, electric charging stations, they're just waiting on cables from the grid.

Make public transport free.

Change the motortax on private vehicles to a combination of vehicle weight/mileage. A 101 - 110 band vehicle covering 30,000 miles P/A creates more CO2 than a 141 - 155 band vehicle doing 10,000 miles P/A. Yet the difference in tax is 190 vs 400... it makes literally no sense.

Interconnect cable to France for Nuclear power. It would actually be cheaper to buy Electricity generated from Nuclear material from our neighbors than burning fossil fuels ourselves going forward.

Build more Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (Turlough Hill) there were plans to build heaps of these around Ireland in the 60's / 70's.

We've a bunch of lazy f**K civil servants and quangos looking for a slice of the pie on any public development. That, in my mind is the main reason the government is hesitant to make any changes.

Shouldnt be too long now so til we have good public transport for all. Metro North must be nearly there. Theyve been at it so long now whats another decade or two.

You are a bit misguided if you think fixing our carbon footprint is a piece of p1ss and wouldn't cost much. Reducing our carbon footprint enough to hit targets will reduce our standard of living significantly and not many people are willing to put up with that.

And even if we met all our targets, we are such a piddly little country, unless everyone else did the same as us, it won't make a jot of a difference.

I'm not saying do nothing by any means, but it ain't as simple as putting a few solar panels on every house. That would help, but won't go next nor near what is needed to actually hit the targets.

One other point, what's the point of putting in loads of electric charging stations when we have Varadkar and other politicians telling us that we mightn't have enough electricity to get us through this winter without blackouts.

TBH I think the likes of China are laughing at Europe and are making climate promises they have no intent on keeping to stay part of the global gang but in reality are watching Europe deliberately make its manufacturing un-competitive cost wise with green taxes so they can clean up, does anyone really believe their covid figures so why would you believe it if they said they are reducing emissions? No way they are going to let the actual figures into the public realm.

Clearly you haven't been keeping tabs on what's happening in China recently. They've been moving so aggressively away from fossil fuels and toward renewables in recent years that they've actually ran into difficulties generating power in recent times. They've literally been mandating that heavy industry either shut down entirely or work on a limited schedule.

The thing about Climate Change is that every country will be affected - maybe not equally and definitely not in the same ways but it's not a net good for anyone. In China's case that has meant the same extreme weather as seen elsewhere but also horrific levels of air pollution. The CCP are no mugs and are trying to change things in their usual heavy handed way.

This idea that certain countries are "laughing at us" while we wring our hands about our own emissions reduction is just plain wrong. It's almost always used to prop up the morally bankrupt argument that we can keep doing whatever we want "because shur aren't we just a small country anyway".

Huh? That's not good news for them at all. Their industrial output is getting hammered and their growth projections are being brutalised. When the lights start going out in huge regions of the country - that's not something that can be hidden. It's gotten so bad that they're trying to reopen coal mines that they have previously shuttered in a desperate attempt to get power back into the system.

You appear to have me pegged as some sort of fan of China. I most certainly am not. I most certainly don't believe their Covid numbers and am even open to the lab origin theory of the genesis of covid.

Their stance on renewables is the same as their stance on everything else. They realise that it's in the best long term interest of the country to migrate away from fossil fuels. It appears that they moved too fast right now but the trend there is only going to be going in one direction from here on out.

Indeed TM. Is there any sign of any of the opposition parties coming out against the broad thrust of the carbon budgets?

Leaving aside the fact that she is an actress and tv presenter and not a green the idea is still interesting.

Of course older people like Lumley who have had their share of travel leave themselves open to charges of hypocrisy if they propose limitations to travel.

It's easy to say "well they have had their fun and now they want to stop others from travelling" but for every one of her generation suggesting change there are many thousands keeping their head down and continuing to burn as many air miles as they can get away with.

Some of the most fervent Climate Change eco-woke types are also the most vocal for unlimited immigration into Ireland, these people have an agenda and it is not a good one for the middle class or for people with money. I'm all for domestic production of Energy and reducing our emissions but not at the outrageous tax hikes we have seen and the disproportionate effect it is having on rural Ireland. Diesel and Petrol should be cut in price not increased, the green agenda is a communist red ideological agenda designed to destroy the economy and all for a disproven science. If Ireland decided to mass cull the human population to 1% it would make no sense so why should we go about wrecking our economy, when we see the USA, China, India, Brazil cutting their pollution we can then start to do the same.

Agriculture in Ireland is a pretty heavy industry, beef and dairy are huge emitters of Co2 and methane. China produce that steel and those chemicals for Ireland and Europe too you know. It's a global problem and everyone needs to do their bit.

What is it you're all actually afraid of? Is it just simply having a few less euros every week?