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PEOPLE ARE BEING encouraged to find their inner tree hugger and vote for Ireland’s Most Loveable Tree.
Members of the public have until tomorrow night to vote in the National Tree Huggers 2014 contest ‘Love My Tree’.
Fifteen people, including former Young Person of the Year Joanne O’Riordan, chef Rachel Allen and Westmeath footballer Israel Ilunga, have chosen their favourite trees for inclusion in the competition.
Pics: Just Forests
Just Forests is behind the initiative and the organisation hopes it will get people talking about serious environmental issues, such as climate change and Ireland’s dependence on imported timber.
Tom Roche, founder and co-ordinator of Just Forests, stated: “The thinking behind this is it’s a nice way of engaging people without being in their face about the more controversial issues.”
People are so overwhelmed by so many issues today, it’s a nice way to engage them. They’re so distracted by new taxes, the Euro just isn’t buying the same amount of stuff as it did this time last year …
Ireland has one of the largest per capita consumption of tropical wood in Europe.
“We need to plant trees, we don’t have half enough,” Roche said.
We can’t ignore the environment. This is where we get everything that sustains us, everything else is secondary. We have to really cherish the natural world and be better stewards of it.
Matt Fogarty is currently well ahead in the competition, with over 1,000 votes at the time of publication.
Roche said that this is particualry notable as the 81-year-old has no access to a computer or the internet. He’s getting votes by handing out cards to people he meets when out and about in Tipperary.
Pic: Just Forests
Roche said it’s scientifically proven that tree hugging is good for your health.
There’s no doubt about it. I’m 65 and in excellent health, I hug a tree whenever I can.
Voting is set to close at midnight tomorrow, 31 October.
The winning tree will go on to represent Ireland in the European Tree of the Year 2015 Contest.
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Was it not the same financial institutions who provided their expertise to most of the collapsed banks and developers .
Good to see some have profited out of the misery inflicted on the Irish citizen…….
@Kerry Blake: yeah, we’re all crippled with austerity, crows picking out our eyes, slung on the dung heap to rot in the blazing sun. beaten to a pulp by the vicious fascist government and their brutal political police. we should call the UN to bring in a peacekeeping force to protect us from the people we elect.
Funnily enough a lot of these names popped up during the crash as well.
Wasn’t it Ernst & Young who gave Anglo Irish Bank a clean bill of health on the eve of the collapse while noow we know that the final cost of the bailout will be close to €40 billion. and KPMG, who audited Irish Nationwide Building Society and reported that the bank had €300 million profits and had set aside €500m for bad debts and the bank ended up having to be bailed out to the tune of €2.6 billion.
When all is said and done Ireland is a stinking cesspit of a country and the further you climb the more you smell.
@Mark DeFriest: In fairness to Ernst & Young and KPMG, they can only audit what they are given, if someone is lying to them about figures they are given, they don’t know the true story. The Central Bank are the regulatory body and have the power to really and truly audit a bank or company, not just asking but demanding, along with checking figures themselves. They should have been doing it, the ultimate failure rests with the Central Bank, these guy where asleep at the wheel.
@Mark DeFriest: Also, I don’t understand myself why NAMA is outsourcing this to other companies, isn’t that the point of NAMA as a bad bank to keep all this stuff in house?
I feel nothing was learned from the crash to be honest, and we will be reading about NAMA 2.0 in about 2 years time.
@OnTheOutside: an independent receiver must be appointed where a company is insolvent. Needs to determine who is owed what, who has claim over what assets etc…
@OnTheOutside:
‘Audit what they are given’
They missed a large black hole there. In the States there’s a banking rule book. Break a rule and you end up in leg irons on the way to San Quentin. In Ireland there’s no rule book, banks make it up as they go along. Ernst and Young admitted during the banking inquiry that although they knew a tsunami of bad debt was about to engulf Anglo Irish Bank under Irish banking law they did not have to take that ominous fact into consideration when clearing the bank. Bit like selling a house while the wrecking ball is pulling into the yard.
@Fake Avast:
Don’t worry about me Constantin.
@OnTheOutside: agreed. If you only give half the ingredients, you cant complain if you end up with bad pancakes instead of a fine patisserie
@eimear, half the ingredients just give half the amount but the taste should be the same.
@Markonline:
:-)
100 odd million for 32 billion of sales. 0.00312 percent. Literally a drop in the ocean. Badly presented article as usual from the journal.
@Joseph Bloggs: €2 m per year is also a drop in the ocean.
Maybe the government can round up a few of these drops if they are so easy to come by and pay down the debt.
Kerching for the well in…
Its a small country with a small circle of friends at the top who plot to screw the rest of us. They are helped by what ever government is in power at the time, usually FF/FG. Time for a change. Vote these basta$rds out at the next GE and start holding the rest accountable for their actions.
NAMA is the biggest scam to ever hit this country , it is elitism at its finest . It’s jobs for the boys and a wink and nod culture among developers and politicians . Who wouldn’t want to be in NAMA when you can borrow money from them at 6% interest rate as opposed to borrowing from a banking institution at a rate of 12% to 15% interest rate .
They were banging on the door of NAMA and couldn’t get in quick enough .
I hate NAMA, the more stories I hear about what they have done that don’t make the news then the more I get annoyed, need some committee to ask questions about what they do?
Well done
Nama should be investigated from start to finish by a company from outside of Ire I don’t trust them and never have and after the dealings in the 6 counties that finished me.
The amounts of cranes and work getting done in Dublin City centre area.
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