"Green" policies are destroying this country

I know it is not relevant to commercial growing but Irish soil can produce a lot of stuff.

Some ssoils are suitable. But you're correct, Small scale backyard growing doesn't equate to commercial horticultural production. There's also a big difference between growing field crops such as potatoes , onions and cabbages and salad type produce in growhouses. Two of the biggest problems in those areas which are suitable for horticultural production is the availability of sufficient labour and the reluctance of people to buy Irish produce when its not as cheap as the stuff imported from North Africa via the Netherlands.

One table shows the futility of Irish efforts -- the top ten table of global emitters:

The countries whose emissions are going down are the US, Japan, Germany and South Korea. Together they represent 7% of global population, 20% of global emissions, and their weighted decrease in emissions averages 1.3% per year over the last ten years. By far the biggest reduction in absolute terms is the USA and that is almost entirely down to the "Frackenstein monster" so hated by the Greens.

Let's ignore Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran ... all oil producers whose emissions tend to be skewed high but who don't make that much difference to the overall picture.

The rest are developing countries: China, India and Indonesia representing 39% of global population and 40% of emissions. Their weighted increase in emissions is 2.9% annually for the past 10 years. Yes, they produce less emissions per capita than the developed world, but they are where almost all of the world's emissions increases are coming from and they have dominated emissions growth for fifty years.

Back in 2019 each single month of Chinese increase in coal consumption (that's just China, just coal, just the increase compared to the previous month) offset all of Ireland's emissions reductions for the fifteen years since its first climate targets in 2005.

Climate change does not care who is producing the emissions. The developing world will not forego its development aspirations because of Green handwringing in the West. That is why we will not solve the problem until we solve low-carbon baseload power. Contrary to Ryan, the only thing Ireland is going to lead the world in is demonstrating how not to do it.

...every little helps.....

"There will be a lot of bleating from the countryside"

Lol.

Again the same green propaganda about the "national herd". The only ones "bleating" seem to the greens bleating about this mystical entity .

There is no planned state expansion of the "national herd". The "national herd" ie the number of cattle - both beef and dairy cattle in the country and has not seen any significant increase since the 1990s. In the last couple of decades the numbers have gone up and down somewhat, but have not increased over previous max numbers. As numbers of beef cattle have reduced, there have been increases in the dairy sector with the total number of cattle remaining relatively static.

And no agriculture again is not the only "cause of falling water standards". A major factor in water quality issues is massive increase in our population and housing both in urban and rural areas, with council waste treatment facilities not being fit for purpose and frequently discharging huge quantities of untreated raw sewage into both the sea (See Ringsend in Dublin for details) and river in places like Cork, Sligo etc. Agriculture is a factor for water quality but its hugely disingenuous to suggest that its the only issue

The largest amount of ghg emissions in Ireland come from energy consumption which accounts for 59% of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions with agriculture at 34%. Looks like that is being brushed under the carpet in an effort to make agriculture the main scape goat here.

I reckon you need to put down the little green book of misinformation especially when it can all easily be checked. The propaganda really doesn't wash.

Well, yet another wind farm in North Kerry is at the mercy of Bord Pleanála, with more turbines than you can 'shake a stick at' but at least they [Bord Pleanála] seem to be showing signs of thinking sometimes enough is enough.

In other news, the anti-LNG protest in Tarbert fizzled out into nothing. Thank heavens.

Do you have any idea what the logic was for charging more for the standing charge for rural customers compared to urban customers?

The standing charge for a day/night meter is €218.23 per year (urban), €274.59 per year (rural), about €60 more than the average annual standing charge. 

https://www.electricireland.ie/news/article/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-nightsaver-meter

Well I guess you could always go buy some land. You would get the best of it for 20000 Euros an acre and then you could show the rest of us how its done.

The future of wind power is in floating offshore wind like the turbine above

If anything your understanding of economics is even more sketchy than your understanding of agriculture.

A KPMG report shows that if this cull of 30% to our national herds the greens are looking for was implemented it would result in 4 Billion euro less exports and 56,400 people losing their employment. Significantly more than the lose of " a small proportion of exchequer takings" don`t you think!

You`re understanding of cattle farming is equally as sketchy if you somehow believe that there is an "expansion of the beef herd"

CSO statistics for beef cows December 2013(1,082,500), June 2021(940,300). A decline of 13.14%. For June 2020 to June 2021 alone there was a decline of 40,000 (4.4%)

Like a lot of this green agenda, imagination rather than verifiable facts is pretty much the norm.

I doubt I could live without it on my toast every morning 😁

To each their own, but I`d sooner attempt eating the stone than the flesh. It`s not something that I have given a lot of thought to, but it does seem a bit crazy lugging a fruit half way around the world when the inedible seed weighs as much as the edible flesh, but then as I have said, each to their own. If they like it and can afford it good luck to them.

That particular data on capacity factor is from one wind farm in 2018 is it not that shows 65% ?

Cnocbui`s link is from June 2022 that shows the 12 month average at 42.2%. Looking through the capacity factor figures for those various off shore wind farms over that 12 month period they seem as hit and miss as on shore.

Only a very rough calculation, but seeing as we know that for extended periods last Winter and this Spring with wind generation having dropped to 6% and lower which meant had we 16X the number of on shore turbines wind would not have provided 100% of our requirements, does that not mean going on those 12 month figures from cnocbui that we would still need at least twice as many wind turbines off shore comparable to those we now have on shore to make up for that 6% and lower figure. Possible even as much as three or four times more seeing as that 42.2% is the average and wind cannot be depended on for averages.

Don't know what argument you thought I was trying to make, but I can't even guess what your point is.

"Hopium" - must remember that - plenty of areas that can be applied to at the moment.

I've had a few stouts but I'm going to say what I've believed for a long time now. Ireland, it's people and it's politicians can't handle money as a country. It corrupts us completely. Our spineless political classes are so eager to please they are perfectly willing to throw their countrymen under the bus. That's the problem here. It goes back 100s of years. A hangover from being colonised. It was the Brits now it's the EU. Throw an Irish politician a brown envelope and they'll screw everyone over no problem. They won't be happy until coal is 100 euro a bag, 500 litres of kerosene is 2000 euro and still no realistic alternative. Haughey lives on. Lost country lost people.