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THE PLAN TO build thousands of wind turbines in the Midlands to export clean energy to the UK has been shelved by the Government Minister Pat Rabbitte confirmed today.
Ireland and the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding last year to establish a new renewable energy trading plan but no final agreement had since been signed and the project was thrown into doubt as a result.
In a statement released today, Minister for Energy Pat Rabbittee announced that the project will therefore not go ahead.
“I regret that it has not been possible at this time to conclude an agreement as envisaged. However I believe that in the context of an European Internal Market and greater integration, greater trade in energy between Britain and Ireland is inevitable in the post 2020 scenario,”the minster said.
Economic analysis conducted on the Irish side clearly indicates that under agreed policy and regulatory conditions, renewable energy trading can deliver significant economic benefits to Ireland and the UK, as well as being attractive to developers.
Protests
Various groups and politicians had objected to the plan, criticising the Government for its scale in particular but the Government and the wind energy industry had estimated that the plan would create up to 30,000 jobs countrywide.
A ‘National day of Protest’ is being organised for this Tuesday in Dublin by different community groups from around the country who have expressed concern about the growth of the wind energy industry and how investment is taking place.
The groups argue that the turbines are being planned in locations that are too close to homes and impinge of the environment of rural areas in particular.
Shelved
Reports that the Midlands plan was in doubt surfaced a number of weeks ago and the Government has since faced pressure in a number of Dáil debates.
A Sinn Féin bill tabled earlier this week had also sought to place stricter regulations on the development of windfarms.
The confirmation that the Midlands export plan will be viewed as a victory by campaigners even if the main issue was the difficulty with securing the final agreement with the UK Government.
“Renewable energy trading has to be designed to work, ” said Rabbitte.
Following further discussions between my Department and the Department of Energy and Climate Change in the UK since the summit between the Taoiseach and Prime Minister Cameron in early March, I am confirmed in the view that given the economic, policy and regulatory complexities involved, and the key decisions yet to be taken by the UK, delivery by 2020 of a Midlands Wind Export Project is not now a realistic proposition.
Rabbitte added that that he has informed his UK counterpart that the Government have decided to drop the plan.
Criticised
The decision to drop the plan has been criticised by the Green Party who say that it is part of a trend that has seen Irish energy politics descend into “short-term, populist thinking gone awry”.
“Abandoning the deal with the UK Government to trade renewable energy is going to cost this country dear, ” said Green Party leader Eamon Ryan.
One of the biggest benefits was that it could have lowered the cost of electricity here by allowing us balance our variable power supplies across a wider area. We have also lost the opportunity to give the whole country an economic boost from billions in investment.
Ryan added that “not a single party in the Dáil which was willing to stand up for renewable power” taking specific aim at Sinn Féin whose proposals last week he said would “kill this natural resource opportunity”.
Don’t tell Tony McGregor
Got on a London bus two weeks ago and the driver said they haven’t accepted cash for four years, you can pay with your debit/credit card if it is contactless, you just tap it…….
@Fat Face 98: good man, that’s a so called Oyster card, or you can use your visa contactless card here, we have a lot of catching up to do with the times in Ireland.
@Fat Face 98: yep even out in the wilds of Surrey, London Transport services have tap and go on their buses for at least four years. Most services don’t have Wi-Fi, which clearly shows that getting on a bus is more important than Wi-Fi availability (especially given 4g rollout for UK&IE is already complete)…..
@Fat Face 98: Don’t compare the British with the Irish they are only 154 years running trains underground so sure they have made all the transport mistakes we need to learn from?
No paddy won’t copy Tommy
@Gareth Cooney: built and often run by Irish, so why not….?
@Paul: you can pay using an Oyster Card or your contactless Debit or Credit Card, sorry but I must be missing your point…..
@Fat Face 98: exactly. It’s fuppin ridiculous when it takes 24-48 hours or more to top up your leap card on the app. Rip off Ireland.
@Lynda Ní Mhurchú: the leap card app tops up straight away, can even set it up to automatically top up once reaches a certain amount on card.
Why aren’t people using leap cards?
I don’t even live in Dublin and I have one, awful handy to top up and use.
@Barry Somers: sometimes your card is out of credit and you gotta use cash! Happens to me sometimes, or you forget your card
@Barry Somers: I’ve been overcharged several times on it.
@Cian Rynne: top up on your phone?
@Cian Rynne: Dublin Bus is a public service. You are entitled to offer your name address and some ID in return for a journey if you have no cash. It’s in the by-law and they cannot refuse you as it is not a private service
@Thomas Cullen: no way!
@Barry Somers: What of tourists and people that live outside Dublin.
@Cian Rynne: hook up your leap card to your bank account and it will top up automatically when your balance is under 5 euros.
@The Girl: You think tourists and those living outside Dublin go to the Dublin Bus HQ to claim their change!
@Cian Rynne: I don’t have a leap card but in the event that you forget it can you not store the card in your digital wallet and tap and go from there.
@Thomas Cullen: no it’s not , if you don’t have a vaild ticket a fixed fare penalty applies.
@Barry Somers: in a train station maybe but online it takes days to go on your card. Crazy when we have top IT services available in the city.
@The Girl: this is hard to believe now but us culcies have leap cards here aswell
Surely that is illegal. Why not just change the fare structure?
@Colm Ó hAodhagáin: yes i wouldve thought its illegal too?
@Generation Snowflake: im no lawyer, but that smells like it would be a violation of the sale of goods act?
@Colm Ó hAodhagáin: should be able to tap with ur debit card like in the uk
@Colm Ó hAodhagáin: yeah why not call it 3 euro ffs
@John Longmore: yes they should of course only scrap the refunds once they have actually rolled out the cashless / contactless options instead of just saying they are looking coward to it !! , until then it’s disgraceful they can just tell customers they are keeping the millions in over payments , behaving like the protected species they are as usual
@Rear Admiral: how is it illegal? Your allowed to travel once you have the exact fare, and have your bus fare ready before you board the bus.
@James Molloy:
>Your allowed to travel once you have the exact fare
except that is not what they are saying. its that they dont pay back the excess to the exact fare.
it doesnt matter that much that if you have 3eur and the fare is 2.85 you lose 15c. but at some time that fare will be 3eur and if you only have a 5eur note they’re screwing you for 2 quid!
@Rear Admiral: they are not accepting notes no matter what.
@Dave Hammond: i don’t think there “keeping” your change. As it says around 10% of the change is actually collected. This is money saving and to push people towards leap cards
@Dave Hammond: i don’t think there “keeping” your change. As it says around 10% of the change is actually collected from HQ. This is money saving and to push people towards leap cards
If you want a cashless system you should accept all cards. We don’t live in Dublin we visit once or twice a year and use the bus maybe 4/6 times. We had one leap card but it didnt have credit on it. 2 adults 3 kids nearly €10 a trip for fare, won’t take notes, can’t tap a debit or credit card and exact change only. Such a pain, technology in the dark ages and now an added rip off. The London transport system is so much better. It must seem like we are in the dark ages to Tourists from other countries. Leaves such a bad impression.
@Siobhan O’Connor: go live in London so!
@Rodney Williams: No, just add contactless payments. It’s the same crap. Shannon Tunnel toll doesn’t take cards at all FFS. Tag or cash and unlike the M50 no discount for Tag either.
@Rodney Williams: I don’t want to live in London or Dublin because of traffic and lack of transport, but if Ireland as a country wants to attract tourism for revenue then we have to compete with the likes of London and transport that is in the dark ages doesn’t leave a good impression.
The leap card is great even if you don’t live in Dublin. But to top up your leap card is an absolute pain. Most shops outside Dublin don’t do it, and if you do it online it’s still a pain because the funds don’t automatically go to the card.
@Jack: It’s simple with the phone app.
@Jack: if your mobile does NFC you can use your phone
@Jack: What’s a Bus, Jack.
@Henry: As Barry said, only if you have a supported smart phone which a lot of people may not. It needs NFC and to be android
@Henry: I think only on android. Not sure if it works on Apple. It’s a great app though on android.
@Conor Egan: Apple phones have NFC, but in typical Apple style they only work with Applepay, sums up Apple really, the new age (not invented here) Microsoft
@Rear Admiral: it’s more got to with apple getting a percentage of all in-app purchases, there’s several app publishers who don’t have top-up/credit purchase within their IOS apps, same reason you can’t buy kindle books from within the Apple Kindle App.
@Jack: you can download the app and top it up. Funds go onto it straight away
Not all phones supported @Andy Moran :(
Should be able to just tap a debit card at this stage.
Just an excuse to get in more money rather than reform
@Irish Bob: I don’t know anybody who goes to collect their change
@Dermot Lane: Thats fine if they happy with that, but this makes it mandantory.
Why not give the ‘change’ money to charity ?
@Irish Bob: they do at the moment. Any of the unclaimed excess goest to charity apparently.
@Irish Bob: the article says that instead of change the extra money raised will go to some charity.
@joe: “the extra change will go towards continuing to improve our services”
@Oisín O’Connor: It also says ““the extra change will go towards continuing to improve our services””
Akin to the tolls
2euro coin on a 1.90 fee
No change
@Quentin Moriarty: all the tolls give change.manned or unmanned.
@Seriously stunned: No they don’t
@Seriously stunned: express lanes no change given
@Colin McNamara: You mustn’t drive much. I got 10c back at three different booths tlast weekend.
@Terrence Edwards: same here but I was in first gear ready to charge when I heard 10 cent drop out. It is a new one to me.
@Quentin Moriarty: they price the tolls accordingly, so what is €2.90, people throw in €3 out of handiness, and leave the 10c. All those 10cents add up.
@Terrence Edwards: they do not give you change.
Look up at the signs before you drive in the next time
25k made in one county by the 10c non refund
@Quentin Moriarty: tips for staff
@Quentin Moriarty: drive to the far left unmanned one, the one the trucks usually go to. It gives change. Express lanes don’t.
@Conor Egan: exactly
Most use express lanes
No reason why the machines can’t give the 10c change
Why do I get the feeling we’re being short changed here…
Couldn’t just use your card like you can in most shops.
Interesting so if a supermarket or a hairdresser has no change can they keep it and claim rightful ownership of your money ,and renovate there business too make it better ??
@John Leonard: point is you wouldn’t go back if they did that. Unfortunately our wonderful semi state thinks they can just take people’s money.
I used to give me receipts to the homeless when I visited Dublin if I didn’t have change.
Great. Now that the NTA have become so progressive perhaps they can extend this reasoning to taxis also which are under the NTA’s remit. Next time a passenger offers me €50 for a €5 fare I can apply the same logic. The NTA are a useless shower of robbing c****!
@Marc Bryan: do u offer pay by card option?
@Marc Bryan: The best option for that is to over them their change in 2 euro coins. See how quickly they produce something else then.
@Marc Bryan: A €5 fare in a taxi? Where do you be dropping them to? The other side of the road??
@Al Madzer: I do.
@Marc Bryan: good man.
Utterly disgraceful that Dublin Bus doesn’t have a tap and pay facility by now, especially as nearly all banking cards have contactless chips, and they have Wi-Fi services across the network. If you live in Ireland Leap card make sense but not all visitors know about them and actually getting one isn’t seamless either….
Now that’s called robbery.
Unclaimed money should go to a charity. Why should Dublin bus be allowed to keep it?
I have never once redeemed a change ticket. And I doubt I am in the minority.
So it’s not much of a change really. I just do not have an option anymore.
The issue is the huge amount of Tourists who use the bus system and don’t have a clue about the weird rules. It’s a disgrace. We need to welcome foreign visitors and make things easy for them to get around , not refuse them after waiting in line.
Leap cards are fine until the practically disintegrate after a few months in your pocket from use. They are shite quality. I’ve had 3 and all of them fell apart and the funds on the card dissappear with them unless you know the card number which wears off within the first few days of use. Cowboys Ted!
@Colm Walsh: register it when you get it that way you can claim the balance back if you lose it.
@Colm Walsh: have my card 5 years and can still clearly read the number. What are you doing to yours that it’s falling apart?
@Darren Byrne: When you contact them to say you’ve lost it they tell you it takes a few days to cancel it. In the mean time some git has found the card and used the credit on it. DB won’t repay you the credit you’ve lost.
@Colm Walsh: maybe store your card somewhere better than your back pocket. Learn from your mistakes…. It’s not the cards fault. I’ve had the same card for almost two year, never keep it in my pockets, same with my part and friends.
Leap Card still not available on apple iphone , ridiculous that half the population are blocked from using their phones,….and it doesn’t sound as if all android phones can get it..
@DeFonz: also prepaid leap bus tickets and bus tickets bought online CANNOT be validated on the bus at the time of journey. They need to be validated in a news agent BEFORE they are used !!! It’s a f****ing disgrace
@DeFonz: talk to Apple about that for locking down the technology in their phone so much. They’ve basically taken it out of the hands of Leap
@Eon Cocker: and the reason for this is that the Dublin bus ticket machines are so old, they can’t connect to the web to check your cards balance/valid tickets, so to get around this your balance and tickets are physically written on the card. You can also collect your ticket using the app on your phone, or any luas stop or train station.
Thus is the same as Oyster card in London btw, but that doesn’t fit the “sure we can’t do anything right here, so we cant” narrative.
@Paddy Walsh: how come if you pay into your bank account or your pre pay electricity/ gas or whatever online it goes straight on…apple phone or not?
@Lynda Ní Mhurchú: None of those involve the usage of what is basically an offline wallet feature in the card, so I don’t really see the relevance of the comparison? The realities of leap are that something with connectivity to the central servers and system needs to be able to write to the card in order to put credit or tickets on them, and Android phones’ NFC devices are open enough to developers to support this, where iPhones are more locked down.
It’s not like an organization in Ireland to discontinue something before having its equivalent in place.
It probably made too much sense to introduce contactless debit card payment as well as the leap card at the same time
Don’t use the Bus too much and when I go to use the Leap card I forget how much is on it and end up with too much money on it for months!
Should be an App which shows your balance etc.
@Dotty Dunleary: the leap card app does just that.
Leapcard app can’t even download in most of the android mobile phones. If you top up in online, again its a big hassle to activate the balance. We need some ‘change’ here!
If Dublin Bus try to introduce anything new like a new pay system the drivers always go on strike :)
They might want to make it a bit easier to find out how much a fair is so
And who keeps the money??
Sure Dublin bus will actually lose money on this, how many unclaimed refund tickets are there?
@Andy Byrne: As stated in the Article €5.7 million from unclaimed change receipts in the past six years
“According to figures released to TheJournal.ie earlier this year, Dublin Bus earned €5.7 million from unclaimed change receipts in the past six years.”
@Irish Bob: busman’s holiday
@Lynda Ní Mhurchú: Excellent !! .. id say thats where some of it goes alright
Shane Ross decided this. Coins annoy him and the clinking sound they make remind him of poor people.
Can Dublin Bus take Contactless Cards yet ?
It’s not a refund, it is your change! Why not use contactless NFC point for your debit card instead of messing about with coins in the first place?
What a nonsense. Tell that to the tourist you weird Dublin Bus people. Where can a tourist purchase a ticket for the bus if he wasn’t told beforehand? From where can tourist get a change for the bus? My God will those stupid people in DB ever learn anything? Can they possibly travel to different countries and take some example? Bunch of
Part of the Rip Off Ireland process.
Miserable jack asses
@Allan Mathew: if Dublin Bus tried to introduce the tap & pay system the drives would probably strike :)
Get a taxi……..
Omg they are fooking assh*les, I hope they bite themselves in the foot and ppl stop paying cash!!
@Tweeter: that’s what the aim is! Eventually it will be cashless system
Why not just have debit cart tap machine ?
That is called robbing the people
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