"Green" policies are destroying this country

Unlikely, the next election will see a further slide for FF towards independents or FG. The people "who get up early in the morning" i.e. the commuter belt and get nailed by the costs of living are going to be the king makers. The Greens are likely to hold their own, the costs of their legislation are mostly borne by constituencies that don't vote for them. If you look at the last council elections results you can see they are strongest in urban areas which have the most bicycle lanes. The last time they got wiped out was for supporting an unpopular party, memories are short and voters forgave them.

The drum beat via the news media in incessant. It is loaded with opinion pieces from Universities, NGOs, the wind & solar generator lobby. That alone will serve to reinforce the Green party vote. The education system has been completely compromised by the efforts of An Taisce,, there is a ready made constituency of first time voters, while they may have low participation rates could be enough to swing tight races given our PR system if election.

They is also Fine Gael to consider, they are aligned with the European People’s Party bloc in the EU. This means they are tied in with Germany (CDU/CSU) and its policies. Therefore we are going to get more of the EU made us do it excuse in the papers. The bind for the Irish government is to keep the MNCs happy with the tax treaties which means having to compromise on the EUs Green new deal, fronted by Ursula Von der Leyen. It means for Irish politicians taking a stand that is opposite what is lobbied for and decided at top EU levels is going against their interests. There is also the ECB (Cristine Lagarde) and IMF (Kristalina Georgieva) all of whom support the EUs Green New Deal, the implication being there is money to be had. Nothing shows the Irish states complete loss of sovereignty like the current situation does.

As regards the EU as an entity, it is a top down anti-democratic structure. It has interfered several times when member countries electorates have rejected them , notably in Ireland (Lisbon Treaty, Nice Treaty), the Lisbon treaty was originally meant to be an EU constitution which was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands before being repackaged. The Irish establishment can be bribed to fall into line when it comes to the EU. Ireland is a net contributor to EU revenue.

EU agrees new cars must be emissions-free after 2035

The claim that random generated energy will bring the bills down is not supported by experience to date. As already outlined in this thread in Ireland are walking into an electricity generation crisis in the country driven by the falloff in output from Corrib and the increased demand on the grid driven by the proposals to force a growing population from consuming primary energy to secondary source (Electricity) for heating and transport and everything else.

The idea of a miracle green hydrogen economy is also flawed due to energy return on energy invested (EROI or EROEI) being negative. i.e. if you have to put more energy in that you get in return, its not worth it at any mass scale.

Back in 2014, Greenpeace installed solar panels

However by the end of 2021 - Solar power station at Bihar’s ‘first solar village’ is now a makeshift cattle shed

The solar panels are now defunct for two reasons, cost and reliability.

As you can't read it, people in poor countries are looking for cheap AND reliable power. If this can be done with solar panels then great, once that village in the story got access to coal powered electricity, the solar panels became an expensive toy.

Heart of Darkness - Why electricity is a security issue

I agree with you that individual action will do nothing to solve climate change. Our single most powerful tool as individuals is our ability to lobby governments and vote for parties and candidates based on their stance on corporate responsibility for climate change.

We need our councillors, TDs and MEPs to know that their reelection campaign depends entirely on their track record on effectively tackling climate change. If the EU imposes strict standards on sustainability for all imports into the single market we will force global change.

Money is always found to buy bombs and missiles when there is a military emergency. The money needs to be found to fund the climate emergency without constantly raising taxes.

We need a ministry for the future. A political platform to advocate for the rights of the next generation who are so often being born as debtors to their parents wasteful and lavish spending

With a little effort and a bit of investment most houses could cut their heating bills significantly, down to a 1/3 or a 1/4 in most old housing stock. That would go a long way. A zero carbon house is best left to new builds though.

He would not have been one of my favourite politicians, but I would agree with him on that. On the big attraction, especially for younger Irish voters, on the Climate Change issue when it comes to voting, it reminded me of that old saying, "If you are not a Llberal at 25 you have no heart. If you are not a conservative at 35 you have no brain". Life`s realities and idealism rarely go hand in hand.

Eamon Ryan whining about guilt-tripping business class flying government ministers. This from someone who has devoted his entire career to guilt-tripping the public, and unfortunately he has the power to follow through with new taxes for things he doesn't approve of. He'll probably try to impose an tax on people saying things he doesn't agree with on the internet. What an utter fraud.