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LAST UPDATE | 2 Apr 2022
UKRAINE HAS REGAINED control of “the whole Kyiv region” after invading Russian forces retreated from some key towns near the Ukrainian capital, its deputy defence minister has declared.
“Irpin, Bucha, Gostomel and the whole Kyiv region were liberated from the invader,” Ganna Maliar said on Facebook, referring to towns that have been heavily destroyed by fighting.
Irpin and Bucha, commuters towns outside Kyiv, were retaken by the Ukrainian army this week.
Ukraine has said Russia is withdrawing from northern areas and appears to be focusing on the east and south of Ukraine.
However there have been severe warnings by Ukraine president Volodymr Zelenskyy that the retreating Russian forces were creating “a complete disaster” outside the capital as they leave mines across “the whole territory”, even around homes and corpses.
He issued the warning as the humanitarian crisis in the encircled city of Mariupol deepened and the Kremlin accused Ukrainians of launching a helicopter attack on a fuel depot on Russian soil.
Ukraine denied responsibility for the fiery blast, but if Moscow’s claim is confirmed, it would be the war’s first known attack in which Ukrainian aircraft penetrated Russian airspace.
“Certainly, this is not something that can be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for the continuation of the talks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The Red Cross is preparing for a fresh evacuation effort from Mariupol after thousands of people escaped the city yesterday.
“Russia is prioritising a different tactic: falling back on the east and south,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said on social media.
He said that while Russian forces appeared to be pulling back from Kyiv and Chernigiv, their aim was to “control a vast stretch of occupied territory and set up there in a powerful way”.
Podolyak said Russian forces would “dig in there, set up air defence, drastically reduce losses and dictate terms”.
Moscow’s aim was to “drastically reduce losses & dictate terms”, he said on Twitter today.
“Without heavy weapons we won’t be able to drive [Russia] out”.
Mariupol has been an important Ukrainian hold-out, suffering weeks of Russian shelling, with at least 5,000 residents killed, local officials said.
The estimated the 160,000 people who remain in the city face shortages of food, water and electricity.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its team heading towards Mariupol to try and conduct an evacuation was forced to turn back yesterday after “arrangements and conditions made it impossible to proceed”.
The ICRC said it would try again today.
Protesters detained
In Moscow, Russian police detained 211 people at protests against the country’s war in Ukraine, an NGO said.
OVD-Info, which monitors arrests during protests, said police had detained at least 211 people during demonstrations in 17 cities in Russia.
An AFP journalist in Moscow witnessed more than 20 people detained by riot police under heavy snowfall in the capital’s central park Zaryadye, a short distance from the Kremlin.
Police escorted away people sitting on park benches or just standing around without explaining the reasons for the detention, the reporter said.
One of the detained women held a bouquet of white tulips, while another several times exclaimed “No to war in Ukraine!” as she was being taken away.
A national sit-in Saturday against what Moscow calls its “military operation” in Ukraine was announced on social media by activists in around 30 Russian cities.
The organisers said in a statement they wanted to protest “the collapse of (Russia’s) economy”, against Russian President Vladimir Putin and to demand freedom for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
“Russia deserves peace, democracy and prosperity,” they said.
In Russia’s second city, Saint Petersburg, AFP saw multiple arrests near the city’s Legislative Assembly where around 40 people gathered, although it was unclear how many were there to protest.
“Nobody will come, all the active ones were detained at previous protests,” said 30-year-old Sergei Gorelov, who said he came to “take a look and show support if necessary”.
“I just came to stand around, to somehow express my protest to everything that is happening. It’s scary to protest actively,” Galina Sedova, 50, told AFP at the scene.
Protesters risk fines and possible prison sentences by taking to the streets.
OVD-Info says that over 15,000 people have been detained at rallies across the country to protest Russian military action in Ukraine, which was launched on February 24.
War crimes
Meanwhile, the former chief prosecutor of United Nations (UN) war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda has called for an international arrest warrant to be issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Putin is a war criminal,” Carla Del Ponte told the Swiss newspaper Le Temps in an interview published on Saturday.
In interviews given to mark the release of her latest book, the Swiss lawyer who oversaw UN investigations in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia said there were clear war crimes being committed in Ukraine.
She said she was particularly shocked by the use of mass graves in Russia’s war on Ukraine, which recalls the worst of the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
“I hoped never to see mass graves again,” she told the newspaper Blick.
“These dead people have loved ones who don’t even know what’s become of them. That is unacceptable.”
Other war crimes she identified in Ukraine include attacks on civilians, the destruction of civilian buildings and even the demolishing of entire villages.
She said the investigation in Ukraine would be easier than that in Yugoslavia because the country itself had requested an international probe.
The current International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, visited Ukraine last month.
If the ICC finds proof of war crimes, she said “you must go up the chain of command until you reach those who took the decisions.”
She said it would be possible to bring even Putin to account.
“You mustn’t let go, continue to investigation. When the investigation into Slobodan Milosevic began, he was still president of Serbia. Who would have thought then that he would one day be judged? Nobody,” she told Blick.
Del Ponte said investigations should be carried out into possible war crimes committed by both sides, pointing also to reports about the alleged torture of some Russian prisoners of war by Ukrainian forces.
Mines
Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the people of Ukraine: “They are mining the whole territory. They are mining homes, mining equipment, even the bodies of people who were killed.
“There are a lot of trip wires, a lot of other dangers.”
He urged residents to wait to resume their normal lives until they are assured that the mines have been cleared and the danger of shelling has passed.
While the Russians kept up their bombardment around Kyiv and Chernihiv, Ukrainian troops exploited the pullback on the ground by mounting counterattacks and retaking a number of towns and villages.
Still, Ukraine and its allies warned that the Kremlin is not de-escalating to promote trust at the bargaining table, as it claimed, but instead resupplying and shifting its troops to the country’s east.
Zelenskyy warned of difficult battles ahead as the Russians redeploy troops. “We are preparing for an even more active defence,” he said.
He did not say anything about the latest round of talks, which took place yesterday by video.
At a round of talks earlier in the week, Ukraine said it would be willing to abandon a bid to join Nato and declare itself neutral – Moscow’s chief demand – in return for security guarantees from several other countries.
The invasion has left thousands dead and driven more than four million refugees from Ukraine.
Elsewhere, at least three Russian ballistic missiles were fired late on Friday from the Crimean Peninsula at the Odesa region on the Black Sea, regional leader Maksim Marchenko said.
The Ukrainian military said the Iskander missiles were intended for critical infrastructure but did not hit their targets because of Ukraine’s air-defence forces. It was unclear where they hit.
Marchenko said there were casualties, but he did not elaborate.
Odesa is Ukraine’s largest port and the headquarters of its navy.
As for the fuel depot explosion, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said two Ukrainian helicopter gunships flew in extremely low and attacked the civilian oil storage facility on the outskirts of the city of Belgorod, about 25 kilometres from the Ukraine border.
The regional governor said two workers at the depot were wounded, but the Rosneft state oil company denied anyone was hurt.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, said on Ukrainian television: “For some reason they say that we did it, but in fact this does not correspond with reality.”
In an interview with Fox, Zelenskyy refused to say whether Ukraine launched the attack.
Amid the Russian pullback on the ground and its continued bombardment, Ukraine’s military said it had retaken 29 settlements in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions.
Additional reporting by AFP.
Without a doubt the worst minister we are stuck with. No idea about anything outside of his views and his precious bike.
@Peter: much like the people of his constituency, who will keep him in power.
@Peter: The bike is for press conferences. I recall that during the campaign for the last election, he was asked if he owned a car. He replied that he drove a diesel.
@Earth Traveller: You’d swear using a bike precludes you from owning a car
@Earth Traveller: Keeping your old diesel is more environmentally friendly than “upgrading” to a new EV, according to Volvo anyway. https://autobuzz.my/2021/11/15/volvo-says-manufacturing-an-ev-generates-70-more-emissions-than-its-ice-counterpart/
@MikeOM: is that just manufacture? Or throughout the full life of the vehicle?
@Earth Traveller: I pass him most mornings and I see him cycling ..
@Ciaran: that was our chance to sort all this out.
@MikeOM: Be careful now Mike. Telling truthful facts on this forum is frowned upon by the leftie snowflakes that dont want anyone saying anything beyond the world view.. Its amazing that we’re encouraged to recycle everything except cars….
@MikeOM: Read the actual article. “Over the lifetime of the vehicle, an EV can reach a breakeven point, achieving a lower total carbon footprint to that of the ICE vehicle’s.”
Seeing as were talking about tolerating deaths in Ireland Eamon….let’s start with 115 homeless people last year
@Richard Day: brilliant point!
@Richard Day: So as long as we have homeless people dying we should tolerate people dying from pollution?
@Thomas O’ Donnell: Take a day off !
@Thomas O’ Donnell: passed the strip mine in Jullich near Aachen yesterday. 10 bagger machines working on the mine with a potential of 3k to 4k tones of coal an hour per machine sending it to Eschweiler power station to be consumed for Germanys industrial network. 1 power station in Germany & you think old people burning turf is going to play a role in clearing up the environment. Fair enough if they really play that kind of role give them free electricity to heat their homes and cook or lay off the cool aid.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: seriously look at putins bombs…….. pollution coming from China…….. now look at a rural home in Ireland burning turf and ask yourself about the situation again.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: Apparently
@Richard Day: I can’t believe you spent money buying a phone with all the homeless people dying
@Richard Day: How many more passed unnecessarily because of our shambolic health service. 900000+ on waiting lists. How many have passed without ever getting to see a consultant how many more will.Are these tolerable!! How long more will he and his cohorts “tolerate”a third world health service and ignore the chaos within or is that of lesser importance than his ridiculous turf war.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: how glib!
@Mickety Dee: Ignor-ant comment.
He’s fixated on these abstract excess deaths, when users of turf couldn’t give a toss for statistics. If a person dies one year before the average for their gender, because they used a turf fire (and maybe smoked in their life and enjoyed a drink and an odd fry up and were sedentary), is it still an excess death, or an enjoyable life well lived? It pains me to say it, but SF are right when they ask how many excess deaths will be caused by forced fuel poverty and cold houses cause?
@Eoin Roche: abstract? They are fairly real for those that die.
@Bri Lyons: Funnily enough, I can’t find the data he is using anywhere. In any given year, 35,000 people die in Ireland of old age, disease, accidents, suicide. However people don’t die of old age at all. They die of the failure of their bodies, through a combination of different ailments and injuries and their immune systems being overwhelmed. A “natural” death of the type that will eventually get us all, even if we lived to be 120. Most of that wear and tear is environmental. Sunshine, pathogens in the air, heat and cold stress, even gravity! And yes pollution. But, without Ryan’s data, how are we to know what other factors are contributing to these deaths? How premature actually are they? Are 1,300 deaths out of 35,000 normal deaths worth driving whole counties into fuel poverty for?
@Eoin Roche: https://irishheart.ie/news/public-unaware-of-serious-health-impacts-of-burning-smoky-fuel/
According to the EPA’s annual air quality report for 2019, air pollution caused 1,300 premature deaths in Ireland last year – up from 1,180 in 2018.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: Ah OK good to see the data. So Ryan is flagging these excess deaths and not making clear that the figures include the burning of smoky solid fuels in urban areas. And yet subsistence burning of turf from local sources is going to take the hit for that. He says the Attorney General tells him that he may not separate turf from smoky coal in any national ban legislation. Is anyone asking why not? Is the AGs advice going to be tested? How can they then say that “traditional” turf use WILL in fact be exempted, but not local distribution and sales and barter between households? The whole proposition is a mess and has Ryan’s clumsy paws all over it. Again.
@Eoin Roche: The problem is mainly PM2.5s. PM2.5s are minute soot particles, small enough to enter deep into the lungs, and when in the lungs they can cause heart disease, brain haemorrhages, strokes, and lung cancer. This article explains why PM2.5s are so toxic:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7327965/
Essentially they cause oxidative stress, this involves the release of toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) into the blood stream which causes inflammation of blood vesicles, causing them to narrow and stiffen, and blood to thicken, the type of changes that cause heart disease and strokes.
How do we know PM2.5s are so toxic and cause deaths?
Alexeeff et al. averaged the results of 42 previous studies between 2005 and 2019 into PM2.5 air pollution.
They found a minuscule increase of just 10 microgram per m2 in PM2.5s increased the risk of fatal coronary heart disease by 23%, fatal cerebrovascular disease by 24%, strokes by 13%, and possibly heart attacks by 8%.
It is meta-Analyses like this that the EPA and the EU, combined with 90 air pollution monitoring stations across the country, to estimate the disease burden caused by PM2.5 air pollution. Today’s PM2.5 levels are 9 to 17 microgram per m2, these levels can double or more depending on weather conditions.
Is this study trustworthy?
This is a meta-analysis, a systematic review of many (42) previous, peer reviewed, medical studies published between 2005 and 2019. Since a meta-analyses do not rely on only one source of information but many, it is the most reliable form of scientific evidence:
https://scienceforwork.com/trustworthiness-scientific-evidence/
Alexeeff, S.E., Liao, N.S., Liu, X., Van Den Eeden, S.K. and Sidney, S. 2021. Long‐Term PM2.5 Exposure and Risks of Ischemic Heart Disease and Stroke Events: Review and Meta‐Analysis. Journal of the American Heart Association, 10, e016890.
Several studies in Ireland also confirmed the link between increased air pollution, and increased heart attacks and strokes:
Quintyne, I., Sheridan, A., Kenny, P. and O’Dwyer, M., 2020. Air Quality and Its Association with Cardiovascular and Respiratory Hospital Admissions in Ireland. Ir Med J, 113(6), p.92.
Byrne, C.P., Bennett, K.E., Hickey, A., Kavanagh, P., Broderick, B., O’Mahony, M. and Williams, D.J., 2020. Short-term air pollution as a risk for stroke admission: a time-series analysis. Cerebrovascular Diseases, 49(4), pp.404-411.
@Eoin Roche: “So Ryan is flagging these excess deaths and not making clear that the figures include the burning of smoky solid fuels in urban areas.”
No, we banned the burning of smoky fuels in most large urban areas, in 24 towns and cities including all of ‘Co. Dublin’ (Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin). See Coal restricted areas on this map, it’s under Environment & Wellbeing:
@Eoin Roche: exactly, wonder do Eamon Ryan know what is used to to generate electricity at ESB moneypoint power station on the river Shannon kilrush Co Clare ?
@David Jordan: my family tree would totally contradict that rigmarole, and on top of that, you can’t burn turf it’s bad for your health, but you can smoke and drink your head off and that’s ok. Oh Jesus get down off the Cross and let me up on to it.
150 homeless deaths this year, FFG response increase home prices.
2,800 deaths due to fuel poverty, FFG response increase prices.
1,300 hundred deaths due to air pollution, FFG response increase data Center’s using mega wattage increasing generating pollution but ban turf for those who cannot harvest their own supplies.
Profit trumps all again. Citizens pay.
@M Bowe: The issue is PM2.5 soot particles which increase the rates of heart disease and stroke, the only power station in the State, that may generate this form of pollution is Moneypoint.
However, it filters the flue gases thus reducing pollution. For example, NOx emissions at Moneypoint decreased 98.8% between 1990 and 2018 with the use of selective catalytic reduction technology. So the major sources of PM2.5s are diesel vehicles and peat burning.
@M Bowe:
Where did you get all that information from? Did you make it up? Why wasn’t this not reported in the media? or from opposition TD’s?
@David Jordan: That data is from an urban environment. Burning turf in a rural setting where the vast majority of turf is burned will not cause the concentrations required to cause damage to health. Copy and paste what you like and pretend to be an expert on all things that you seem to be on here but you are wrong on this
More nanny state fear mongering. Why not make everyone where a helmet while they are driving while we are at it. Or how about needing a license to buy a kitchen knife. Just let people live their lives.
@Vestigial: Helmets for drivers isn’t a bad idea, people are always pushing it for cyclists. Car accidents are responsible for 17% of traumatic brain injuries.
Said it before and I’ll say it again , Varadkar and Martin are responsible for this looo….ny being unleased on us.
Fed up with the government placating to every whim of Ryan just to stay in power. I accept that change is needed to try save lives and the planet however, Ryan needs to realise that the people need to want to do these things and not have them rammed down our throats without explaining exactly what the sodding plan is. He appears to think “I said it therefore it is” just cus he may be morally correct does not mean it should be done in the manner he wants.
What a absolute di#khead
This guy is making a laughing stock of us all,and it’s really not funny anymore
This FFGG Government is a shambles, possibly worse, if that’s possible, than the FF/Green Government that was ousted in 2011. Let them all swing together at the next General Election.
He should be turfed out!!
D.O.P.E !!!!!!
Yes Éamon so let’s get the hospital waiting lists down to realistic numbers and provide enough beds, doctors and nurses to look after the people! Back to the bog with you
Anyone who votes for the Green Party is an absolute !d!ot
I been around this planet since the forties and never heard of a doctor saying some body died from turf anywhere.
Now politicians roaring and bawling about turf for endless months instead of addressing the real issues affecting peoples such as cost of living.
It’s grand to die from the lack of any health system in this country though. There is a 13 month waiting list for an ultrasound scan in the Mater Hospital. It’s just turf that you’re not allowed die from. Feel free to die on a HSE waiting list.
Our government is supposed to govern for the good of all our people. Yet, lead by the Green party they decided not to prospect for Oil, and Gas In Ireland. It appeared inevitable since 2014 that Mr. Putin would invade Ukraine. The government has never had as many highly paid advisers.
They have tunnel vision about climate change, but until the rest of the world buys into this, the only result in Ireland
will a failed economy, and our people dying from Cold.
Omg, and he gets schooled by “8 advisers “, you couldn’t really make this up.
The man is an obvious looper and needs to be sanctioned, for his own good and of course OURS
And how much more st.. idity do we have to tolerate from politicians.
3 people die every day in this country from addiction while Ryan and this shambles of a government prioritised whether we vote for a mayor or not over trying to tackle the drugs issue. So let’s start with 3 people a day because that’s what Eminem currently tolerates on that issue.
@Declan Doherty: Ryan not Eminem obviously.
Eamon Ryan and his partners “Friends of the Irish Environment “ are wasting millions of taxpayers money on legal aid purposely flooding villages and destroying communities at “Lough Funshinagh flood Crisis “
In Co Roscommon
So just ban smoking as well while he’s at it
@Michael Dikie Foran: Cheek of him. It’s a free country and if he doesn’t want or need to use turf or tobacco himself, he’s free to choose any alternatives affordable to him.
@Michael Dikie Foran: The government would never ban smoking as they make too much money form people smoking.
Box of smokes €14 approx €2.50 a pack before taxes are added on.
@Dave Byrne: how much of the Health budget is spent of treating patients with smoking related illnesses? The sale and purchase of smokes should be made as difficult as possible. The age on which someone can buy smokes should be increase by 1 or 2 years every year.
@Michael Dikie Foran: too much of a tax take from it. But those taxes are sold as trying to price people off smoking, yet they never put in this tax in a way that drives peolle to give them up…50c 2 times a year…. enough to make it look as if they are doing something but not enoughto force people off them. After all, people who smoke will always find that 50c when they need to, it is an addiction after all. And how those taxes were sold are a bit like how the carbon tax is sold as a way to price people off fossil fuels….except the rural population of the country have no EV charging network or a public transport system, that are fit for purpose, that they can use as an alternative to fossil fuels to get around.
@Joe_X: regarding smoking, hop on a cheap Ryanair flight to Spain or Portugal, buy 20 cartons @ €57/carton, fly home the following day. These are EU duty paid cigarettes for self consumption. The financial saving is €97/carton, so it makes perfect financial sense. Customs might get stroppy, but once they’re for self use, they can’t do anything about it. A few idle threats, but they have no legal right to impound them.
@Seosamh Mac Cionnaith: Would be an Idea but I finally managed to give them up after 30 years….and it wasn’t the price made me give them up either, I kept managing to find the extra 50c. Woke up a morning last December and no smokes and no time to get them before work so did without them, and one day ked to the next and so on.
No, my point is, if the Goverment were serious about people giving up smoking, instead of raising the price slowly like they are, they would chuck a €10.00 hike at once and shock people off them. But they are not serious about it, just like how with the carbon tax they’re not serious either, otherwise the alternatives would be in place properly so that everyone can have a choice and choose what the want. Fossil Fueled private transport and carbon tax or Renewables/ public transport and no carbon tax. The rural sectors do not have that choice at the moment.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: No one needs to use tobacco. And it’s not an entirely free country, lot’s of things are illegal.
@Joe_X: congratulations on packing them in. Unfortunately I’m still a work in progress. And yes, you are right, the government should ban them outright or make them completely unaffordable. But, like alcohol, the tax take is massive, and they don’t know how to cope without it. Cigarettes, alcohol, and petrol/diesel, they’re not called the old reliables for nothing.
This minister and his party are deluded, miss guided and playing for the camera.
No mention of Air travel, Concrete production or Timber framed houses? Beef production, Diesel trains, Diesel Ferries and cruise liners or container vessels no, but Jimmy Mary or Joseph cant burn Turf… What next, ?A ban on Tatched cottages or Red hair and freckles maybe. A practical green party has a place on our island but this jester needs to go.
https://airquality.ie/stations
This is every monitoring station in the country. All are showing good air quality.
@The Bolt: It’s almost May, I doubt many people are still burning turf all day long at this time of year.
@Alan Byrne: https://airquality.ie/calendar?station=EPA-54&month=1&year=2022
There’s Ennis in January as an example. Still clean air.
@The Bolt: That’s Carlow, Ennis is https://airquality.ie/calendar?station=EPA-25&month=1&year=2022
Actually, Ennis seems to be the worst one in the country for January, lol
Its dangerous to breath in fumes from turf so a total ban during the worst energy crisis…but its ok not to ban smoking. Same argument!! Oh wait no tax collected on turf.
Shut all the pubs as well then.
@Jason Dawson: Healy Rae’s don’t like this.
Although this is a serious issue for people leaving in the country and rightly so its just distraction from the main issues.. the country is going to hell in a hand cart ..no new hospital ..price of that is true the roof no houses for our own people .and we could have a minster taking over the the running of the country that there is a question mark over his big nubby head…. And mehole stills has lessons to learn even tho he has been in politics for God knows how long
I used to think the Healy-Raes were the most embarrasing in the Dail, but this lad, especially considering his position is really try to steal that crown.
Oh no mr healthy is awake and wagging his finger ,that clown will live forever and have a pension the likes of never seen in the state before ,look what fffg have unleashed on us !!
Water this vegetation with diesel
Has he any proof that actual turf burning alone has killed anyone,
Did he not fly to the States recently, was that pollution free ?.
Myself and everyone I knew had turf fires growing up and we all grand Eamonn Ryan is making a mountain out of a molehill he just clueless
Still waiting to see a death certificate stating air quality as the cause…The 1300 no is a fantasy figure
Remember when we had smokey coal in Dublin , the buildings were black with the stuff, especially the central bank and Trinity.
@ChronicAnxiety: That was the leaded petrol and diesel fumes.
Is the turf club anything to do with this does anyone know?
Isn’t an awful lot of the smokey coal coming down from the north,and people are selling it,if u can save on buying your coal and it’s 5 or more euros cheaper,your going to buy it for that amount,It’s constant talk about climate change,but when people can’t afford to pay over the top to heat the house,or be able to afford petrol or diesel to go to work,the climate change is the last thing on your mind,and what Cabbage head is doing with the Greens,is making people angry,and it does the opposite,people don’t want to hear about sods of turf in Counties that are miles away from them..give us a chance to sort out the immediate problems right now.
How many people die from smoking every year? It’s irrelevant to Eamon Ryan because cigarettes bring in too much revenue to ban. He’s picking on turf and peat because it looks good in a fight against climate change.
How many more idiotic statements from this grade A mope should we endure? Tunnel vision, woeful communication, and a refusal to consider any other point of view. The media portray him as sensible and intelligent, and perhaps he is. However, he does himself no favours with his myopic perseverance with policies which are unworkable for the most part. He is not helped by his partners in government, they seem to tolerate whatever he comes up with just to cling on to power. The tail is definitely wagging the dog here. Government policies, not just green initiatives, need to be thoroughly thought through, and sustainable. As a country we are too reactionary. This is perfectly acceptable in issues like the Ukraine crisis, but the running of our country deserves more work and better policies.
We are either serious about meeting our carbon emission targets or we are not.
This is just the beginning, turf is a very dirty fuel.
He’s not going to put your grandmother in jail ………that’s what he stated on the news oh wow how rude
Come on people, turf cutting belongs to the dark ages. Get some solar panels ffs
@François Pignon: will you pay for them for people struggling to live on a pension
@François Pignon: For many the subsidies are insufficient to cover the cost of the full installations of renewable tech. Many have more pressing concerns to spend money on, especially at the moment.
@François Pignon: Let them eat cake?
@Joe_X: it’s funny actually, I was just looking at tonight’s episode of “The Price Of Everything” that I had recorded this evening and they were actually covering Energy. On it, they were covering the BER of houses and showed a house being surveyed. At the end of this particular section, the episode told us that the lady who owned the house would need €26,000 after the grants were included. The improvements surveyed for were roof insulation, external wall insulation and the associated ventilation and heating upgrades.
Now I do not have €26000 lying around to upgrade my place and if I need to take out a loan, there are plenty other things that need sorting first. And I am pretty sure that I’m not the only one in this particular boat!
Now while the program was well thought out, I did have a few issues with it, most of what they covered were urban issues, never mentioned the carbon tax, only what the government has done so far concerning the energy crisis, and never thought of going to a rural area to cover what prospects faced the people of those areas.
@François Pignon: Solar panels do not provide you with a reliable, dependable energy source. I have solar thermal. We have too much when it’s a blue sky day, when it dumps heat to the radiators into already very warm rooms. So we have to open the windows to let the heat out. And very, very little from October to April. It’s good for hot water from April to September but no way will it heat our home.
Pearse missing the point again. And throwing out the word correlation to make yourself sound smart is getting old as well. Try causation or at least understand the difference between the two.
Jesus we light a turf fire and we all die ..
A noddy awakes with more nonsense in the cabbage head
How much Coal is Used to Generate Electricity compared to Usage of Turf
What is an appropriate age to die? And can the earth support us into indefinite old age
If we want to deal with climate change and stop pollution than burning Turf must eventually come to an end.
What a complete plo@nker this lad is.
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These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
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