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SHOULD DAYLIGHT SAVING Time be abolished?
That’s the issue that’s going to be on the agenda when MEPs vote on such a proposal next month.
The move was welcomed by Seán Kelly MEP, who is leader of the Fine Gael delegation in the European Parliament.
He said that the parliament had agreed to table an EU resolution calling for an end to the bi-annual time change or Daylight Saving Time (DST), for health and safety reasons.
Last month, the European Parliament’s Research Service published its study on EU summer-time arrangements, which Kelly said confirmed that the benefits of DST are “marginal” because what you save on light you spend on heating, whereas negative consequences for health are “more severe“ than previously thought.
The report - which can be read here – says that:
“I have consistently called for an end to the time change over serious health and safety concerns for citizens and am fully supporting a European Parliament motion to end the practice. Various studies show that going against the natural rhythm has a detrimental impact on sleep and health,” said Kelly.
He continued:
Morning light or dawn is particularly important in enabling the human circadian system to adjust internal time to the external dawn/dusk cycle and seriously impacts overall health and mental well-being. When we disrupt our natural rhythms, many people lose sleep leading to weakened immunity, increased anxiety and depression in some cases. It also means people are driving tired or less alert and are less able to concentrate leading to more accidents and a lower quality work performance.
The Ireland South MEP said DST especially impacts on light sleepers or those who have difficulty sleeping.
“It is nonsensical to lose an hour of daylight every spring, meaning commuters are driving in the dark,” he said. “It goes against the natural rhythms and takes many people a number of weeks to adjust.”
He described it as “an unnecessary, archaic practice” and said the resolution is needed to keep the issue on the agenda. An EU-wide agreement would be needed in order to implement the change.
In a recent poll on TheJournal.ie, 77% of readers said DST should be scrapped, and 22% said it shouldn’t.
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What a country Ireland is at last growing into to. Its starting to mature at last… Excellent idea
Its about time Irish heroes who fought in the great war, world war 2 and other wars for foreign armies, namely the British army are remembered. Credit has to be given to Myles Dungan and Kevin Myers for their continuous writing on this topic over the years and of course Mary McAleese for the fantastic work she did in her time as president.
There was great economic pressure at the time of this recruitment, jobs were scare and people thought that the war would be short, It was a bit of an adventure for a lot of them. Unfortunately it did not turn out like that and the Irish suffered the greatest proportion of fatalities per capita of any people in the allied forces. They were treated as cannon fodder, there was nothing noble or heroic about being ordered out in your thousands to climb up a sea cliff while thousands of Ottoman soldiers shoot at you or charging across a bare field at German artillery. I certainly feel pity for them and how they were used. Like Ireland at the time, most of the men from the south in uniform were pro independence and freedom. Some were not, several of the RIC men that opened up on Bloody Sunday had done their service at the front in WW1. Countless men in the IRA, like the great Tom Barry had fought for years in WW1. My own Grand Uncle fought in WW1 and brought back weapons and grenades for my Grand Father’s IRA unit.
There is nothing heroic in dying in mud at the hands of an enemy miles away in your thousands for a side that had no trouble with you going over first but nor do I despise them. Money was tight, jobs scare and the pressure to join up was massive. I’m just sad that they died the way they did, same as if they had fought for the Czar or the Kaiser.
cannon fodder is all the Irish were in the trenches!!
Indeed and a poignant point was that Unionist regiments and Nationalist regiments were both seen as Irish by the British colonels and used for first waves attacks.
A man from Galway or from East Belfast was viewed as just as useful as stopping a German bullet, whatever flag he doodled in letters home.
Bloody nonsense…
“how Irishmen were recruited into British Forces… ” I really get fed up with this lazy post independence language that suggests the irish were dragged into some foreign army. We, like the English, Welsh and Scots simply joined THE Army.
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