"Green" policies are destroying this country

So if you know all this then why are you asking me? Be great if you could post a link to the minutes of that meeting when you have them.

If you are complaining that the overall design which is spread across the codes and scheme agreements is hard to understand, I agree that that is fair comment.

I was only asking you because I am trying to understand how you can be so sure of said design that you can respond here with confidence, despite the fact that the detailed design doesn't yet exist?

As for minutes of the MOUG, they aren't taken AFAIK. It's an open forum for all participants to join. The slides are published on the SEMO website though so feel free to review and post any questions to SEMO. They're very helpful.

No harm to be planning ahead, even if he's not there to oversee it. The mobility hub thing does sound like a good idea. I'll give him that. Though he then goes bananas on numbers when he says

I don't know when EVs came to be first on the roads and 110,000 seems like a good number. But expecting to add another 85,000 in 13 months is deluded when sales in 2023 so far are 22,590. He thinks there be a 4 fold increase in sales next year. Not likely.

Solar not doing a lot in Ireland lately, it's like the lad who gets out of bed with a hangover, arrives late for work, barely does a tap during the day, then fecks off home early for some hair of the dog.

https://www.greencollective.io/dashboard

Where is Germany in that table?, should they not be on top with billions spent on their Energiewende. Obviously the lesson from this is that intermittent, unreliable generation sources with poor capacity factors are not going to get us there. Hydro is tapped out in Ireland. Irish politicians want to be the "best boys in Europe", simple solution, quadruple imports of "solid biofuel" from Brazil. Does importing wood pellets from Latvia to Ireland not count?, they are cheaper than domestic produced sources and they are green. How about heat pumps that run on electricity generated from steam power created in heat exchange from nuclear reactors? Like Sweden and Finland do.

We are.

We will be at 80% of electricity from renewables in a decade.

No. The economics of energy density matters, the very dilute flow of wind and solar means the provision of electrical power becomes exponentially more expensive as you try to both grow the generation capacity to meet demand while also approaching that 80% number. In a decade there will be 8 billion people on the planet who want the most affordable, reliable, plentiful energy, this is the reason why hydrocarbon based fuels are going to continue to be burned, even a decade from now.

Secondly, the deliberate policy of strangling the European economy through lack of affordable energy is forcing German companies to move production outside the EU, as Germany sinks, the whole green house of cards goes with it, including the EUs green new deal. The political backlash is already present, the pendulum has started to swing against the existing incumbents and it's gathering momentum, now that Russian energy is only available indirectly, the EU is highly dependent on the United States and Arabian gulf states for hydrocarbon energy, the EU is highly dependent on China to process the raw materials needed for solar, wind and batteries. Unreliable generation has no way forward in a geopolitically unstable world, getting these projects off the ground is not economically feasible as can bee seen from the Wind project failures. In this insecure environment the lack of security in even sourcing conventional hydro-carbon energy becomes a higher priority in the EU, the lack of LNG platform in Ireland means we we can't secure delivery from a reliable source i.e. the United States.

At last Ryan talks sense:

im all in support of this but it also begs a few questions:

Why only now?

the north quays up in Dublin are a mess. The queue to turn right at the bottom of Church Street to go up the hill causes sever build up back towards Parkgate Street. I’m sure there are lots of other bottle necks - how does he propose to sort these out?

I can but agree with You here. I’ve seen it many times - there is no point in installing cycle lanes when there is no legal obligation on cyclists to use them.

Speaking of bottlenecks, I still cannot understand the logic of taking away the left turn at Butt Bridge ( Amiens/Gardiner Streets ) outside Liberty Hall. Now traffic to make that left turn have to wait on the traffic lights instead of using the filter lane.

True but by having all traffic sitting at lights with engines idling ( thus adding fumes to the atmosphere ) defeating the very objective of Ryan & his crusade?

I realise you can't help yourself. But you really should repeat it to yourself a few times per day until it sinks in:

NOTHING IRELAND DOES CAN OR WILL AFFECT CLIMATE CHANGE.

NOTHING IRELAND DOES CAN OR WILL AFFECT CLIMATE CHANGE.

NOTHING IRELAND DOES CAN OR WILL AFFECT CLIMATE CHANGE.

See how easy that is? After that you should be able to rethink "the massive environmental cost of not transitioning away from climate change". There isn't any. Ireland cannot "transition away from climate change". That's not even a thing.

Here's a thought, though. If Ireland didn't blow all its money on the crazy pipedreams of a green megalomaniac, it would have a lot more left for climate change adaptation if and when required. It would be also well situated to adopt low carbon energy technologies whenever someone with more clout than us matures them, and when the winners in the technology race become clearer. In particular we would be able to see how other island nations like Taiwan fare with their particular problem of grid isolation. Right now Taiwan is looking like becoming another casualty of the monumentally stupid decision to shut down nuclear and rely on offshore wind, with wind developments now also being cancelled due to rising rates.

The supposed longer-term aim is to "force" people out of cars with an attempt to make the experience more horrible than public transport. It doesn't work that well but it is all about virtue-signalling rather than practical results.

I found it quite funny that so many councils decided to give free parking in their car parks up and down the country for Christmas in a bid to get punters into the towns to spend the mullah. No big push for park and ride, or saying how great the public transport is. None of that. It was get into your car, and drive in and get free parking.

https://www.google.com/search?q=free+parking+christmas

And many green councilors on the councils too. Surely they'd be pushing back but not heard much. To me, this backs up the previous Irish Times poll where business overwhelmingly said they didn't give 2 figs about climate change

well what's the alternative? keep putting more and more cars on the road as the population grows? space is limited in dublin, we need people to leave the car at home more and more by providing alternatives. i'm not sure where the virtue signalling lies.

Some Councils with a greater green representation wouldn't have gone for a parking promotion around Christmas, mainly the more affluent, urban ones.

But rural towns where parking controls are in place, prioritise Christmas turnover ahead of virtue signalling and so have stuck with cheaper or free parking.

And of course they'd be right to. If parking isn't easy, the businesses don't enough custom. If businesses don't get enough custom, they don't survive. If they don't survive, the Council loses it Rates base. And if that happens then it has no money to operate and reinvest in local services and initiatives.

So, if the Greens plan to put up any sort of a fight ahead of these upcoming elections, they'd want to come up with some suggestions as to how to fund local government sustainably. Cos the way they're going, they'll have our rural towns boarded up.