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TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR said global efforts to tackle and repair a hole in the ozone layer when he was growing up could be replicated now to tackle climate change.
Speaking at the launch of the government’s long-term climate action plan at the Technological University in Dublin, he said growing up, acid rain and damage to the ozone were the biggest issues, but that they were successfully remedied by global action.
“Growing up, for us, the biggest environmental concerns were acid rain and the depletion of the ozone layer,” he said.
“These were real threats, not scare stories and action was taken, on a global scale, and our fears were conquered.
For young people growing up today, one of their greatest fears is that the world will be destroyed in a climate apocalypse.
Varadkar and several government ministers attended the launch this afternoon.
The measures outlined in the action plan follow the recommendations from the citizens’ assembly report which was published last year.
The citizens’ assembly accepted recommendations from members of the public, representative groups and other organisations before delivering its verdict on the measures needed to effect a change in Ireland’s carbon footprint.
The new measures officially announced today include removing petrol and diesel vehicles from Irish roads over the next 11 years, and also moving toward electric-powered vehicles for public transport.
The government outlined plans to more than double the reliance on renewable energy from 30% to 70% and aims to close coal and peat plants.
In agriculture, it wants to expand forestry planting and introduce targeted changes to land management.
Climate change minister Richard Bruton said the new measures are “sensible and fair’ and “most economic” so as to “create the least burden on our people”.
“Ireland is far off course and we are very exposed as a result of that, we must act now to make ourselves resilient,” he said.
The longer we delay making that change the harder it will be in the long run.
“This effort we are making now is integral to the vision the government has set out in project 2040.
“The government will have central responsibly in creating the roadmap to do that,” he added.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “Our approach is not a coercive one rather it is to nudge citizens and businesses to change their behaviour.”
Rural vs Urban
Asked if the new measures would have a disproportionate impact on rural homes than it would on urban ones, Varadkar said the effect would depend on individual households’ circumstances rather than the location of their home in rural or urban areas.
“The impact on individuals, on households, is actually going to be different and it’s not a case of urban versus rural.
“If you’re driving a lot it’s going to impact you more than people who aren’t, but there are lots of people who live in rural Ireland who have a shorter commute.
It’s far too simplistic to say rural-urban… so we really should try and get away from that kind of binary simplicity.
On the effect of farming on carbon emissions, Varadkar said he believed consumers were concerned about the sustainability of the products they buy, and so it is in farmers’ interests to move to sustainable farming.
“A lot of farmers get this already… you have to know your consumer, you have to know your market,” he said.
Consumers want to know that food they’re buying is being produced sustainably.
Challenging
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said he welcomed the added attention being given to climate change but said it fell short in some areas.
“There is still a lack of clarity, ambition, and urgency,” he said.
Responding to media reports that vehicles could be barred from urban town centres around Ireland, Independent TD Mattie MCGrath said the new measures look like “an absolute nightmare for rural Ireland”.
“How can any one of us have confidence that these proposals will not hit rural Ireland hardest especially since we are already so badly served with the existing transport network,” he said.
The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Associations said farmers would respond to the “right incentives” but that the measures would be challenging for them.
“We [...] need to look at policies to ensure that farmers who engage in best practice from an environmental point of view are rewarded,” a statement said.
“We also need to look again at better policies at both national and EU level on renewable energies.”
Sinn Féin’s climate spokesperson Brian Stanley criticised the plans as falling short of what is needed to instigate a positive change.
“The Government does not have an ambitious enough action plan for renewable energy,” he said.
“It contains no commitment to a large-scale capital plan to develop renewable energy like bio-gas, bio-mass, wind, or solar on the scale which is required.”
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Now how do we get all these new people across Dublin? Because they won’t be able to afford to live there . We need a metro system in Dublin and we need to start it now because it will take 10 years to develop and build that should be part of any plan for this amount of development
Now now sonic be careful talking sense on here. You might be accused of trying to spoil the party
That’s risky, the overall cost would be astronomical. Building Athens’ metro was a huge factor in Greece’s economic collapse, Expanding the luas would be a better option
Dublin is not Athens Brian. Corruption and lack of taxes being paid are also a big factor in the problems facing Athens. …I know we have them here too but our economy is quiet different and Dublin would greatly benefit from a badly needed metro
Being unable to get a train/tram/metro from the city center to the airport(s) is a bad reflection.
Apart from Dublin, I’ve only seen it in Budapest.
Be realistic as long as only those who are living in Dublin pay for it I have no problem with it but that s not going to happen it will be tax payer funded. Dublin has no need for a metro service. You could walk from one end to the next if you wanted too. Even better cycle!
The Luas doesn’t have the capacity required and is a short-term cheap solution. Look at the red line every morning. Trams every 3 minutes and they’re all completely full. There is no more room for expansion.
A Metro on the other hand can be a higher capacity and is future proof
Have to diagree Vincent. .Dublin is not just the area between the north and south circular road. It’s a metro area that unfortunately sprawls between 4 counties at this point due to unprofessional planning and gombeen politics and lack of understanding by so called city leaders. ..this combined with a lack of will has hampered lots of development in our capital
Vincent, not everybody has the ability to walk or cycle…
Sonic don’t worry it will be a soft landing .
@STop, of course not everybody can walk/cycle but way more can that are currently doing so.
Many cars lodged in CC traffic of an evening are people who could cycle but are plain too lazy to do so.
Vincent, you could walk across America if you wanted to, but does that mean you should?
Vincent if that’s what you believe then you don’t understand how cities work. The ability to move lots of people quickly and sustainably (eg not mostly in cars) is a defining aspect of successful cities in terms of them being good places to live and work. Dublin sadly has a poorly planned underfunded and disconnected public transport system. A metro is a basic piece of infrastructure that’s badly needed.
Dublin airport is the busiest airport in Europe without a rapid link to the city it serves. Doing nothing is not an option.
Irish cottage. …unfortunately doing nothing seems to be the option that the powers that be in Dublin seem to have adopted. I don’t think things will change until the useless anachronisms masquerading as planning agencies in Ireland are reformed and Dublin has a directly elected mayor to work for this city and it’s people
Fine. As long as we see how the whole process is organised, how contracts will be awarded and who will get them.
Exactly – I’d rather NAMA made a €1 Billion loss and was transparent than made a €1 Billion profit and was shrouded in secrecy.
73% in Dublin City, 93% the greater Dublin area, they really do not give a F**k about the rest of the country.
Dublin is experiencing a much worse housing crisis than the rest of the country. Have you seen rents in Dublin?
Dude. ..2 things. …firstly the article is about building in Dublin not all of Ireland. ..secondly greater Dublin contains about 40 % of the states population in one urban area so that combined with projected growth rates for Dublin are reasons that Dublin are of interest to planners
Dude ..What do you mean by”the rest of the country” ..?? Should we build a 23 storey office tower and three 15 storey apartment buildings in Leitrim or West Clare….Think not
Cork…??? you might have a point…
Totally Agree!!!
There is a huge problem of housing shortage in Dublin, which is not being experienced anywhere else in the country. There is also a massive problem of lack of available office space in Dublin. This is not the case anywhere else in the country. In fact, most other Irish towns have a surplus supply of commercial office spaces. There is little point in building new office blocks in Portarlington or Tralee as they cannot fill the ones they have.
The IDA are bending over backwards trying to convince foreign direct investment (FDI) to locate in the regions, but outside of other decent sized urban centres (and even then they are difficult to convince), they are not interested. Dublin is where the people are and Dublin is the only place they have a reasonable chance of encouraging a skilled multinational workforce to base themselves and be interested in living.
Why are using the word “Dude” ?
Dude,as a deep south resident who spends a lot of time visiting family in around the south east UK area I hear what you say,but as a capitol city Dublin really needs to sort itself out with regard to proper high density housing suitable for a modern city,and also with fast rail transport infrastructure in place to cater for the higher density population,in the absence of private investment its going to take a lot of the available state investment to achieve this,but with the economy powering ahead there is little doubt but the rest of the country will only benefit from this in the future.
Carl, have you seen rents in the other cities?
Yes actually:
Dude, lets just build massive sky-scrapers in the docklands and be done with it.
andno ‘Starter Homes’ ffs…
Proper livable family sized apartments so people who work in the city can live in the city.
Add in the shops and schools and green areas and off we go.
No Fozz. An Bord Pleanala have decided that it’s better to protect our non-existant “skyline” and condemn everyone to the types of houses they’re more used to. Namely, cute little semi-detached houses with a front and back garden out in the suburbs miles from the city.
And Rory Conway: to summarise that link, rents in Dublin are 44% higher than that of the next biggest city.
Carl. ..bord planalla and an taschi need to be abolished and be replaced by bodies populated by people who understand that they live in a growing city and not a personal museum
Don’t be such a negative **n*
Can everyone just stop saying ‘dude’??
Using the phrase “Starter Home” in the article makes me wonder if anything has been learned at all…
Of course nothing has been learned. The only sectors which really recovered were exports and property while the government is using money we don’t have to try to buy the upcoming election.
What got us into this mess? An over-reliance on property and exports for our economy and spending money we didn’t have to buy elections.
IF we had learned anything , half the dail would be in jail and Gardai would be breaking in doors of the branks.
and the banks
This is fantastic news with the current deficit in housing supply. No doubt the begrudgers will find something to whinge about l.
Yes it is positive news Oisin, but as with every single major infrastructure project implemented by Government agencies, it will be a complete haims from start to finish (when I say finish I mean 8 years late and triple the budget)
I dunno about that. Most of the roads projects in Cork in the last 12 or 15 years came off on budget and on time ( sometimes despite the contractors’ best efforts …)
Now George desist with the positive factual vibes. The lads will have a fit like. You can’t be going around saying that public sector projects can come in on budget even if all the evidence of the last few years points to exactly that. You’ll feckin depress everyone with that carry on.
“Dublin’s tallest office block.” I hope they meant Ireland’s tallest office block because its either build upwards or outwards and at this stage its just crazy to keep expanding the city outwards. The docklands is an ideal location for a Canary Wharf or Défense
It’s only going to be 19-22 storeys, and even worse is the Exo building planned for the Watchtower site.
Dubai newspapers are all reporting it. …new York too
Meanwhile dereliction continues across so much of Dublin. Why no effort at renovation and refurbishment ? We will never solve our housing crisis as long as we ignore existing buildings that could so easily provide smart imaginative and attractive housing. All we need is a change in the current blinkered policy!
People like you are never happy so it don’t matter what they do
On behalf of @Irish Cottage Rental, I would like to say that it’s people like you Ronan, so blinkered in their views and outlook that cause the issues that @Irish Cottage Rental raised.
Irish Cottage, “dereliction continues across much of Dublin” you say. Much of Dublin? News to me. We need thousands of new homes and apartments in Dublin. Site infill and replacing and renovating derelict buildings isn’t going to cut the mustard and will only make a minor contribution. Good for NAMA.
Well what do you propose genius ? Spend tons of money renovating which properties ? What does the procurement process look like? How does one identify and select which delapedated properties to renovate ? What they are doing is stimulating our economy and creating employment etc but of course you have an issue with something.
And getting their own pals to built it?
I have no confidence in the ability of NAMA to do this work.
In fact, I don’t think it is their job to do this at all.
David the reason NAMA are doing it is that the property market is not functioning properly. It needs someone to kickstart things. But my all means let’s sit on our hands and bemoan our faith instead of doing something about it. A real 1950s Ireland attitude.
Expect all of these new “homes” to be bought up by the Google’s and Facebook’s for exec’s as well as being bought up by big American investment companies…
These won’t be homes for ordinary Dubliner’s, at least those earning under €80k a year…!
How about conducting proper archeaological digs first and preserving the Viking settlements on the Quays
Actually that end of town is mostly reclaimed from the sea. When the Vikings were about, pretty much everything to the east of what is now Front Square in Trinity was on the seaside.
Or less so on the seaside and more actually in the sea
Yeah, but the Vikings dropped quite a bit of stuff in the sea.
More cookie cutter apartments for the docklands. They should have built those apartments in Drumcondra or near Navan Road or between Portobello and Dolphins Barn. Do they think people want to live upstairs from their job?
Many will want to live close to work. When I worked in London, the commute was the most difficult part of the day – 1.5 hours, each way. To be able to get in to work in half an hour (one way) is a massive bonus.
Living in ‘The Drum’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
And this complies with EU Competition Law how exactly?
and how does it not comply?
State-subsidised entity effectively given a monopoly position due to cheap access to funding etc. Impossible for private companies to compete against. That’s why EU Competition Law came into being. Would be amazed if this stood up to a legal challenge.
@John, have you lost the plot? Don’t really see much private building happening now. Remember most of the developers went bust for making a mess of the country. Also we have a property crisis in Dublin so how can this be anything but good news so far? Challenge it? Seriously? Never build anything so.
No plot lost, thankfully. The market, and I mean “the market” can only recover when NAMA and IBRC are wound up and things are left to commercial entities to sort out. There are a very many private equity funds, for example, that would fund construction. However their cost of funds is not of the order of 0.1% or whatever NAMA’s is at the moment, so they cannot compete. NAMA’s plans are a continuation of the “rigged” markets which EU Competition Law was designed to eradicate – seven years after an economic crash, I would have hoped we had completed the move away from a reliance on State support not to be setting out to increase it.
John,
your off the mark completely. They providing the funding to winning tenders. They are providing the money for private entities.
At a subsidised rate….and only to people that NAMA “likes”. How do you compete with this if you have your own site adjacent to NAMA’s? Will NAMA fund you too at a subsidised rate?
John M, are you completely deluded? We do not have a functioning property market and you are complaining because the State which can borrow funds cheaply and reinvest it in new houses, instead of making obscene profits fleecing people, is stepping in because the market has failed? But if only the State did nothing the market would rediscover its mojo and it would be houses for everyone? Newsflash – the State has done virtually nothing and the market has not rediscovered its mojo! This is precisely why the State through NAMA is now deciding to do something to try to kickstart the market because we can’t all sit on our hands and wait for your favourite venture capital fund to build houses when they decide people are desperate enough and they can maximise their profits.
In case you have forgotten, along with the people who green thumbed you, NAMA exists because the property moguls whom you extol along with private banks, bankrupted the public purse. But of course it’s all the fault of the State. You’d have been perfectly at home with the laisser faire capitalism of the 19th century which permitted the landlord class to blame the famine on an act of God and which prevented Govt intervention when people were starving. God forbid we should interfere with the market even when the market has failed. You have the faith in the market of a religious zealot.
NAMA is a private company (as we keep being told). The State is subsidising one private company to the exclusion of other private companies. That is State Aid, which is illegal under EU Competition Law. I expect somebody to litigate this – as it is clearly not a level playing field. On a technical point, what bankrupted the public purse was the political decision to bail out the banks – I would have put them into liquidation. We are in the current problem because of a failure to allow the market to work back in 2008.
Reminiscent of the Canary Wharf development in East London. A success now – but almost went bust a couple of times in the 20+ years, after its completion. The same happened in a number of countries who had the brilliant idea to develop their capital’s dockland.
This development is small compared to Canary Wharf.
No comparison lol. …canary wharf is like a city
Just 14 million square feet. London is the city…
I’m a bit cynical because there was a big deal made of the Bolands Mill announcement in the summer when it was announced demolition would begin immediately. Now I haven’t been up that side in a few weeks but 4 months after the announcement can anyone tell me if demolition works have started yet?
Work started about a month ago. it’s not just demolition as there is reconstruction too.
No nothing
Work started 2 months ago
Drove by every day. ..hadn’t noticed any work underway. .lol must head to spec savers
Ok maybe not a 23 story office block in Leitrim or Roscommon but what about the commuter belt towns Wexford Waterford Wicklow Meath etc areas where ppl from Dublin have escaped too what about building more houses in them areas. I understand Dublin is a high population area but if it doesn’t exist in Dublin it simply doesn’t exist. Nothing outside the pale. Nama should be NAMAD
Tom whatever about parts of Meath or Wicklow, building homes in Waterford and Wexford for people working in Dublin would be lunacy and would replicate the insanity of the bad planning of the Celtic Tiger. There are plenty of places to build homes in Dublin. A long commute is a recipe for stress and a bad family life. The reason they are trying to build homes in Dublin is massive pent up demand. I am not aware of a similar lent up demand in Waterford and Wexford.
3 and 4 bed starter homes.. What is it with this country.. If you buy a 4 bed home, surely its not as a “starter”.. god will we ever learn..
What gives me this distinctly uneasy feeling when I read a headline like that ?
Combined with letting chancers out of bankruptcy after a year to wreak more damage on a new set of creditors makes me realise that we have learned nothing and are destined to repeat the mistakes of the very recent past
Dublin,Dublin,Dublin,Dublin. They don’t seem to think anyone outside of DUBLIN, has a housing problem.
Geoff why don’t you enlighten us about the terrible housing problems elsewhere in the country and do a comparison with Dublin while you’re at it. Incidentally this article was about Dublin not the rest of the country where I’m sure they’re gagging for high rise apartments and office blocks. Outside of Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick we have one of the lowest population densities in the developed world. If you want a modern State you need scale. That means cities where investment can serve the many instead of being scattered among the few living on their sacred half acre.
Ireland is a very small Island and investment should be spread evenly throughout the Islands towns and villages and not just the clustered east town of Dublin which has very poorly planned traffic management which would now cost too much to change it now. Cork or limerick or Tipperary would be much better for investment and have much nicer hard working more hospitable people .
The terracotta tiles are a great touch. They give this meticulously well-planned development a classy heritage look that blends in almost seamlessly with the decrepit redbrick structures nearby. Or something…..
I hope that some of this new housing will be used to sort out homelessness. I’m sure developing the docklands in this way is only a good thing but that’s an awful lot of money and it would easily solve the homeless problem with plenty left over.
Mick Wallace as project manager and I’ll be happy.
Canary Dwarf
Why waste more money on dead end office blocks and why spend so much money in Dublin. We all bailed out the banks its not like we do not need thousands of houses around the country . All this money should be spent only on housing . If offices are needed let the companies that use them build them out of their money. Who will be given these contracts like who is a friend of who.Will it be clearly published how public money is spent.
They said earlier the properties would be in the 300k region. 60 grand deposit, no problem!!!
Are NAMA not working for the People of Ireland or have i missed something.
Who has the building of the Docklands.Is it the builders who ruined the Country i pay every month my USC for and i want to know who is benefiting the people who pay the USC should know .
I personally do not want the same people who ruined this Country to start again with loans which we have to pay back while they live in luxury. No the badger and his corrupt partners can go fly a kite.
Barrow street will soon be closed and turned into Google avenue….
How many properties do politicians families own in these areas? Who got the the sites at 50% off ??? It stinks to high heaven that within 6 months of a fire sale of these sites around Dublin now somebody is going the flip them and double their money.
Kilternan and Stelaside intererst me alot as i love not far. So what kind ovf houses. I’m in a Council House can i have a two bed roomed so i can have my Grandchild now and then or one of my sons who i am happy to say live in other Countries but i would love to accommodate them in Ireland. I am Irish, not saying that means anything today. But if anyone from the Council is around IWANT 2 ROOMS I work and i pay my way that should be enough.
have your say