How will elderly people manage when the cold snap arrives?

How does the Irish Government expect the population to accept that we have to achieve the environmental targets currently set to satisfy the EU when China, India and others are undoing the good that we do every day by multiple amounts and intend to do so until 2040?

Why are we hurting our people with carbon tax, herd reduction, closing down our power stations, and banning coal and turf from our fireplaces when the world’s biggest polluter is planning to pollute even more in the next 20 years?

Carbon tax is meant to increase prices to urge people to be more frugal. When carbon tax was introduced in Ireland the prices were already rising dramatically. So the urge to be more frugal was already there. Yet the government still put it on and then after an outcry from the public they gave a subsidy to ease the pain of carbon tax. You could not make up this lunacy from any government.

Why do the current occupants of Dáil Éireann not see that no matter what Ireland does with our emissions, as they are so small in a global context, that it will make no difference to the global emissions except to hurt our people for no good reason?

Can pensioners get through winter?

How are pensioners supposed to get through this coming winter? We can’t get turf and the price of coal is gone sky high and we cannot afford to light a fire to keep warm during the cold, long evenings in winter. Thanks to this so-called Green Party even boiling a kettle for a cup of tea is becoming unaffordable due to the high energy prices caused by the greed of the energy companies who are making huge profits.

Even the costs of the bare essentials like bread, butter and milk are increasing now.

It is high time we had feet on the streets like we did with the water charges.

Major collapse of economic activity

Europe is set on a course of absolute self-destruction and nobody anywhere is shouting stop. There is weeping and gnashing of teeth from all sides predicting how bad things are going to be and what can be done to mollify or reduce the effects of sanctions and shortages. I believe that despite what little can be done and what supports can be made available, Europe and much of the world is going to have a major collapse of economic activity. The consequences of business closure, mass unemployment, loss of income, failure of vital services, and shortage of foodstuff will be unprecedented.

Will it be all over after the ravages of one terrible winter? Or will it continue indefinably? It is possible the ramifications will continue for decades.

Expensive costs of retrofitting houses

Estimates for household retrofit to get to a B2 Building Energy Rating (BER) were stated as anything from €60k to €100k-plus for the average household. SEAI are living in a world apart — cloud cuckoo land — with their proposal to ban oil and gas refurb boilers for existing homes by 2030.

What ordinary person living in rural or urban Ireland, who’s boiler breaks down in mid-winter and needs a new one, could affort the time to apply for, and get prices for, and wait for approval for, a grant, for a new electric powered heat exchanger and then spend upward of €60k to €100k while she/he waits in mid winter to source a builder, any builder, and arrange for it to be installed?

Trade war will be worse for Ireland

Before Simon Coveney threatens us with a trade war he might like to reflect that it would hit the Irish Republic much harder than the UK — and the UK government should make sure to maximise that pain.

Name places after Mná na hÉireann

I note that Dublin City Council (DCC) has launched a public consultation on the naming of a bridge over the Royal Canal at Croke Park. The council’s Commemorations and Naming Committee has approved a proposal to name the bridge at Russell Street ‘Bloody Sunday Bridge’.

Naming a place or structure is usually a political statement and I fully support the initiative to commemorate Bloody Sunday, DCC’s initiative might be the impetus needed for more local authorities to reflect on some of the memorials and street names in our cities and towns commemorating those associated with misrule in Ireland down the centuries.

The roles that generations of Irish women have played in the political, cultural, religious, and civic life in Ireland have been immeasurable but is not sufficiently acknowledged by central government or local authorities. Dublin City Council can begin to redress this by formally recognising the sacrifices and heroism of Mná na hÉireann.

Safeguarding the right to education

Education is under attack in many countries and regions around the world. As one of the organisations in Ireland working to support education globally in development and emergency contexts, the Irish Forum for Global Education wants to highlight International Day to Protect Education From Attack, observed every year on September 9 (today). The day aims to raise awareness to protect children and their education. Attacks on schools, students, and teachers cost lives and can have a serious and lasting impact on a child’s access to education and societal development.

Education has come under violent attack frequently in recent years, even as the Covid-19 pandemic closed schools and universities around the world. Attacks on education and military use increased globally during this period, compared to the proceeding years. In 2020 and 2021, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) identified more than 5,000 reported attacks on education and cases of military use of schools and universities. More than 9,000 students and educators were abducted, arbitrarily arrested, injured, or killed in these events. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, and Palestine were the countries most affected by attacks on schools, with each experiencing more than 400 threatened or actual attacks. The war in Ukraine has seen these attacks multiply and education in Afghanistan is under ongoing attack with girls secondary schools closed down completely.

It is essential therefore to mark September 9 and demand a real response to counter this trend. The Safe Schools Declaration, which Ireland has signed up to, was opened for endorsement in Oslo in 2015 and to date it has been signed by 114 countries. It outlines a set of commitments to strengthen the protection of education from attack and restrict use of schools and universities for military purposes. It seeks to ensure the continuity of safe education during armed conflict. By endorsing the declaration, states also commit to restoring access to safe education and to developing education systems that are conflict-sensitive and promote respect between social or ethnic groups.

All governments should endorse the declaration and financial support is needed for its full implementation. It can save lives and safeguard the right to education for all including those living in conflict situations. We should use September 9 to join the call for this.

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