"Green" policies are destroying this country

They aren’t drawing water and simultaneously pumping waste directly into watercourses. A non story getting wind from nobody’s. “Coast watch”

a cranky aul bag.

They are all horticulture. It will also burst their bubble to know that these are enterprises that spread multitudes more chemicals and chemical fertilisers in soil type far more prone to leeching and run off than dairy pasture.

Takes a lot of water to produce milk. Not just in drinking but also in the various washings.

I didn`t. I pointed out that according to the same EPA agriculture wasn`t the only source, and that 75% sewage is urban where 49% of it was not being treated to E.U. mandatory standards, that 7.5 million litres of raw untreated sewage is being pumped into seas and waterways daily and that there were a large number of treatment plants borderline when it came to mandatory E.U. standards with there being no plans or timetables to do anything about that. All those are the responsibility of the Irish governments utility company, but I don`t see you calling on the government to stop that pollution of water, or concen for industrial pollution of the same.

@roosterman71 has pointed out, (and not for the first time), that your "reality" that the worst water quality indicators track beef and dairy agriculture clustered around the Golden Vale and Midlands is incorrect.

But then none of of that suits your anti beef and dairy agriculture agenda. And where are you getting this "a few hundred thousand farmers" polluting when there are only 135,000 farms in the country ?

I don`t see what your point is on export earning. All countries export to provide employment and help their economies. Are we back to this idea that we are somehow living in our own little biosphere here ?

But then when it suits that is Irish green thinking on cattle. Unless that is you can be the first to give a coherent logical reason for culling over 1 million cattle numbers here, while Brazil alone is increasing theirs by 24 million to supply, by export, world demand.

So what are you eating that everyone else isn’t?

You keep saying raw untreated municipal sewage - but that's not what is been discharged by treatment plants. Some is attributable to storm surges where the incoming water is diverted away from the treatment plant rather than letting it flush out the raw untreated sewage. Much of the rest is treated to secondary level which represents mostly treated sewage with the final polish phase missing. There are occasional discharges of raw sewage when treatment plants break down or are mismanaged by the operative but this would represent the minority of cases. There are legacy plants with minimal treatment but Irish water is now upgrading them and they are been brought up to standard.

So your hyperbolic statement of raw untreated sewage been routinely discharged by miniciple authorities is pure exaggeration for effect. I worked in the water industry and let it be said that every unjustified discharge of effluent comes with a financial penalty to the private operator who runs the plants so they do nothing routinely to incure penalties.

As for your comments regarding leakage of drinking water - again Irish water is addressing the years of neglect which councils allowed on their networks, and every year the figure is reducing. I worked at a plant which was been upgraded to meet high demand, but by the time the plant was finished leak chasing had reduced the demand on the plant to the point where the upgrade was not needed to meet demand.

It's a shame that water charges were scraped as they are the best way to both control demand and pay for works to the network.

Apparently using firelighters is the new crime. As if we burn them by the box.

Ah the classic "I want the best of everything but I won't support how it gets here". There's very little in life that's produced without ramifications elsewhere. You're posting on a message board which requires energy to host, that energy is over 50% from coal and gas right now.

I think it was Thomas Sowell who said "there are no solutions only trade offs". Sadly this gets completely missed in all of these types of discussions.

I cannot let this go:

I don’t know who is sanctioning all these bicycle lanes, but they haven’t a clue:

EG : Someone built a cycle lane up the Main Street in Bray, resulting in 2 busses going in opposite directions cannot get past each other.

EG: the same thing was done on the road leaving Maynooth in the direction of Dublin ( sorry, I don’t know the name of the street ) resulting in the same problem, 2 busses not able to pass each other

EG: A lane was sacrificed on the north quays in Dublin to accommodate a cycle lane. Today I was on the said quays and bicycles still cycling in the bus lane resulting in a build-up of busses unable to pass. This becomes even more ridiculous as there is no law enforcing bicycles to use cycle lanes.

There are many more instances of this ‘planning’ by people who haven’t a clue (Main Street in Newbridge is a prime example).

Synical cute whorism approach to a stated policy of increasing bike usage. Typical policy implementation done dirt cheap.

Politicians get to pat themselves on the back for taking the piss.

That is a common doom scenario ever since the 1970s. Malthusian based. It has not come to pass mainly due to technology. But, it does not mean those issues have gone away completely. On top of that we have an increasing global demographic problem with too few children being born coupled w the end of globalisation. Although technology won't be a complete panacea, humans will adapt as they always have, with local instead of global solutions. It is the only way forward.

And to take waste water and agricultural runoffs as an example. In Holland the drinking water is actually very good and they have many working treatment plants. There is also the nitrate directive which functions quite well. The trouble with dutch farmers started when the state introduced 'special nature areas' with higher standards which then lead to adjacent farmers being punished for being over the new standard limit using faulty measurement technologies. And that is an almost perfect example of how NOT to use technology that does not fit the problem, like so many green ones ie, massive windmill and solar panel sites. They do not fix the underlying issue..

What i am saying is that talking doom is a futile effort. It is best to address local issues in a balanced way. No need for scaremongering and bringing in EU/WEF based enforced directives and fascist style rules and compliance mechanisms. In fact, that will make things much worse. People will push back defending their freedom. Plus, that clash actually delays the transition to cleaner energy. This is something the Greens will never see. They (falsely) believe the fascist narrative will work. Most left leaning people tend to only see fascism coming from the right. That is their blind spot. They dont spot their internal Adolph. I call it 'Sam Harris syndrom'. Not only that, they think they have the answers to current and future problems so wont get involved in creating a clear thinking path w new ideas to tackle issues that are ever evolving. They are, in essence, extremely narrow minded. And people clearly see that. The end of globalisation is a far more challenging set of issues than climate change. Ireland is not immune to that. We will see the Green Dream deflating like a balloon the more irish people are confronted with its consequences. Anyone who thinks climate change is more important than say, healthcare and a changing economic outlook has got his priorities wrong..

I see the IFA went nuts and told the EPA to delete their Tweet suggesting having a meat free day once a week.

Why on earth would the EPA pander to them over something so innocuous?

I'm willing to sell you a piece of land for your adventure.

According to themselves, it was to do with the EPA wading into dietary matters and going against the governments own nutritional advice