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Video game loot boxes exposing children to gambling must end, says Fianna Fáil

Jim O’Callaghan said a Gambling Regulator needs to be in place by the end of the year.

VIDEO GAME LOOT box gambling must be tackled, according to Fianna Fáil, who said today that it entices children into gambling. 

Some practices of buying items in video games constitute a form of gambling that children are being exposed to, said justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan today. 

In-game purchases and downloadable content that supplement the actual game can all come at a cost in popular games such as FIFA, Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty.

These are referred to as loot boxes – you can spend money or use points earned in the game to acquire them – where you’re taking a punt hoping you’re acquiring top quality features for the video game.

Speaking to reporters today, O’Callaghan said:

“Gambling has become a serious problem that is destroying lives in Ireland. Children are being lured into gambling through online-video games that use loot boxes.

“There are many games out there like Fortnight that attract children to play on the basis that at the end of their obstacle course or at the end of their game there will be a loot box there and some piece of money available for them,” he said. 

“I think we have to be conscious that if we are going to allow children to be influenced by the prospect that if they excel at something there is going to be a pot of money for them it entices them into the long-term into gambling.”

Today, the creators of Fortnite said they are changing some loot boxes so you will be able to see what’s inside before buying them. The boxes contain random items and customise options, but typically you don’t know what you’re going to get.

In Fortnite, the loot llamas – available to buy in the Save the World game mode – can be bought using the game’s special money called V-Bucks. At the moment, a player can buy 1,000 V-bucks for €9. 

O’Callaghan said that children are exposed at all walks of life to pressures.

“We try and protect them as as a State – we try to protect them from tobacco, we try and protect them from alcohol and similarly we should try and protect them from the dangers posed by gambling,” he said. 

Gambling has changed in recent years, with O’Callaghan stating that “in the old days a man went into a bookies and the worst thing that could happen was he lost a week’s wages.

While he said that was bad enough, now they can gamble with credit cards and money that they don’t have. 

In addition to tackling gambling in video games, Fianna Fáil want to create whistle-to-whistle betting, or in-game betting, which will only allow people to put down bets during the course of a sports game or event. 

Additionally, the party wants to ban credit card gambling, something that has been recently been banned by the UK regulator.

O’Callaghan hit out against Fine Gael for pledging in their last manifesto, as well as the programme for government, to deal with the issue of gambling, stating that it is unbelievable that Ireland does not have a Gambling Regulator. 

Last summer, the government said the measures first mooted in the Gambling Control Bill (2013) were finally set to be enacted, with the Taoiseach stating that it would take 18 months for a regulator to be set up. Minister of State David Stanton, who was charged with rolling out the legislation, indicated that the provision for video games may be included in future laws.

O’Callaghan said dealing with the gambling industry is a priority for Fianna Fáil and pledged that with his party in government, a regulator would be set up by the end of the year. 

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    Mute Cillian_Durkin
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:17 PM

    Best description I have heard of this process so far was Vincent Brown describing the approach as “showing the state’s contempt for the ordinary person.”

    One thing that FG/FF could have as common ground for a coalition in 2016 is their continuing contempt for the Irish people.

    Whether you support the pylons or not is not what my point is about.

    163
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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:43 PM

    Common Purpose have always held the common people in contempt.

    39
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    Mute ThomasFrancisMeagher
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:55 PM

    Two of the Pylon routes in question run through Special Areas of Conservation: the Comeragh Mountains and Slievenamon. Much work has been undertaken by Waterford CoCo in the development of tourism in the area, such as the recently launched hiking routes in the Comeraghs & the Deise Greenway cycle path. South Tipp CoCo is also seeking to promote tourism in the Suir Valley, along the former Towpath on the River Suir between Carrick-on-Suir and Kilsheelan. Surely such initiatives would suffer were pylons to be constructed in either or both of the aforementioned areas?

    Why did EirGrid not consider an underwater power route from (a) Knockraha to Great Island via the Cork/Waterford coast or (b) from Knockraha to Dublin as part of its study area? Given that the company wishes to construct a 600-kilometre underwater inter-connector from Great Island to France, it appears incongruous that the same consideration would not be given by an Irish company for one of its proposed Irish projects?

    It has been stated on more than one occasion by both EirGrid and Minister Rabbitte that this power line is necessary for economic development. How then did the country prosper during the late 90s and into the mid-2000s when this route was not in place and full employment was achieved?

    Do the right thing & put these pylons off-shore or underground.

    101
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    Mute Cillian_Durkin
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:58 PM

    Things like this also damage out image as a pristine environment to produce food in, damages our tourism.

    Easier to add the greasy penny to the till instead of looking at the bigger picture.

    Eirgrid suits have demanded it and the Govt. here will take “hard decisions” and let the bigger picture go hang.

    We have a chance to avoid the mistakes that other countries now wish they could avoided and plan to do so in future.

    57
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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:38 PM

    There is no case made for these pylons as they will be used to export power to places who have decided not to destroy their own countryside with wind turbines and pylons. Nor has a case been made that they will create employment here after the few construction jobs run out. If new power lines were needed then the cost of burying them is an extra 3% [ estimated and disputed, so what] on our bills which pales into insignificance with the subsides and carbon taxes that we pay out already. The sheer size of these pylons and their associated wind turbines is beyond the comprehension of the lay person, for Dublin dwellers think of Liberty Hall and then try to imagine something 3 times it’s height, then imagine what hundreds of them would look like in the Phoenix Park or outside your front door.
    They will not be coming anywhere near me.

    42
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    Mute ThomasFrancisMeagher
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:56 PM

    I hope to look back with pride in future years that we are the people who put a stop to Eirgrid’s destruction of our environment & heritage. It might be too late for Georgian Dublin & Woodquay but it’s not too late to stop these unnecessary pylons from permanently destroying our countryside. Make no mistake about it, this infrastructure isn’t being built for the benefit of the Irish people but for the benefit of a few well connected business people who hope to do well out of selling wind power into the UK backed by subsidies & support from their friends in the Irish Govt.
    The golden circle is alive & well. These Govt officials will be appointed to the boards of the organisations they facilitate to bully the Irish people as soon as their political careers end. It’s sickening.

    You can be sure that the brief that Eirgrid’s engineers got was to find the cheapest way to erect this infrastructure & this is what they did. Well maybe it’s time they went back to the drawing board & looked for the best way to build it & I have have no doubt that they will find that going underground & off-shore is the best way. Saving money in the short run at the cost of destroying rural communities is not good business & will be resisted at every step by people who care about our country & see Ireland as not just an economy but a society.

    57
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    Mute Pauline Harney Keogh
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:21 PM

    Put them underground and put the proposed wind farms off shore.

    57
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    Mute Joe Valentine
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:29 PM

    If you’re willing to pay for them then sure, why not? I ain’t! But sure it doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference how loudly the bungalow warriors shout. These pylons are going up, so are the wind turbines including the one in Offaly.

    19
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    Mute Brendan Greene
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:30 PM

    Pauline, the real problem with both those ideas is that it will at least double, if not treble the cost. Take offshore wind, for example. The turbines have to be constructed of much stronger, more expensive materials and construction and maintainance is much more difficult and expensive.
    As regards pylons, under grounding has its own problems. It is more expensive to do and fault tracing is much more time consuming and expensive. This is the reason why pylons are the norm wprldwide even in areas of outstanding beauty.

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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:41 PM

    The cost of burying the lines will add 3% to our bills according to government figures, but they are not needed in the first place.

    36
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    Mute Joe Valentine
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:49 PM

    3% extra for the cables is nonsense. I don’t give a feck who said it. That is just a pure out and out lie.

    30
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    Mute Pauline Harney Keogh
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:14 PM

    Why should the Irish people allow our beautiful country to be destroyed by wind farms and pylon corridors to support the UK’s need for more energy?

    40
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    Mute Kevin Landers
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:15 PM

    That figure is absolute nonsense. Educate yourself and dont believe everything you read!!!

    10
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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:41 PM

    If it cost 10% more to bury cables it is still less than we shell out for all the green scams. Look at your car tax, then look at your lecky bill now look at your car tax again and ask yourself WTF.

    14
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    Mute Graham Young
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    Jan 10th 2014, 4:40 PM

    My question is why exactly should the Irish people pay 3% when we’re not actually the consumer? Put them underground and pass on the cost who’s using the power

    1
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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:20 PM

    “Recently, (the cities of) Kolding and Sønderborg decided to not erect further wind turbines (in their 500 km2+ jurisdictions) until the uncertainty about their impact on neighbours is settled”, announced Danish television TVSyd (1).

    Kolding is Denmark’s 7th largest city with 57,000 inhabitants. Its jurisdiction extends 605 km2 and includes a total of 89,000 inhabitants (76,000 for Sønderborg).

    Adds Dr Mauri Johansson, EPAW’s spokesman for Scandinavia: “During the last 12 months, several smaller municipalities had done the same, in spite of strong pressure from government. They are not satisfied with the noise regulations, and demand that independent studies (i.e. objective ones) be done concerning the effects of wind turbines on health.

    46
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    Mute Paul Somers
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:45 PM

    Here is a actual report http://www.bioinitiative.org/ written by scientists, clearly showing the EMF effects of overhead wires.

    In addition It’s a long read but it’s definitely in your interest to read this. It relates in particular, to those of you who are living in town’s or cities where you’re under the assumption that all this hot air about Windfarms won’t affect you as you won’t see them..

    So you’ve no need to get involved in all this crap..Right?.. You’ve enough on your plate to deal with without us lot adding to it, besides, it can’t affect me at all, you may say..Can it?..

    Yes..
    It can and does, as yet again, your little sneaky PSO levy on the back of your ESB bill has gone up.
    Costing you more to live in your home.

    Electric Ireland has courageously stepped forward and like a true martyr they’ve absorbed a certain amount of the hit on your behalf, (Google it. Price rise 2014)….stating that costs to produce your electricity has risen.
    But neglect to tell you why, how and who’s associated with these rising costs.

    Well, read this, and you’ll have a better understanding, as it sums it all up for you, with hard facts and definitive figures..

    As yet again, we rely on facts from the pissed off British and Scottish public through their media, as they’ve had windfarms for longer than us here in Ireland, we’re learning from their well proclaimed mistakes.

    Make no mistake about it people, Windfarms ARE affecting us all financially..now. And it seems that it can only get worse.. or am I wrong in my assumption?.. that bills just seem to go one way in this Country..
    UP.. http://www.jmt.org/stuart-young-report.asp

    49
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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:56 PM

    Offshore wind €156 MWh
    Onshore wind €95 MWh
    Conventional power €30 MWh
    Approximate figure, European Wholesale market.

    17
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    Mute patrick
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:33 PM

    They should put the wind turbines underground also.

    43
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    Mute Jarlath Murphy
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:34 PM

    I always check out the pylons when on holiday….just after the Cathedrals

    41
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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:42 PM

    Who owns the wind farms for which this grid is being built?

    29
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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:40 PM

    As wind power fails to deliver in cold weather when needed most it has to be backed up with conventional power[ that is power sources that actually deliver] There is no mention of back up power being built to support this latest stage of the scam, and we must wonder why.

    23
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    Mute Joe Valentine
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:48 PM

    When is the last time the wind has not been blowing on the west coast in winter? You keep on going about how turbines don’t work in Scandinavia but you forget we have the Atlantic and the trade winds.

    15
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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:59 PM

    Wind turbine gearbox failure is now becoming widespread after 5-7 years. The only thing that wind power delivers is massive subsidy to those involved in the scam.

    20
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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:01 PM

    One Thorium reactor would provide all our power needs and is much more advanced than present nuclear.

    17
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    Mute Cillian_Durkin
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:45 PM

    It would but they aren’t ready for use yet.

    12
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    Mute Mitch Connor
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:07 PM

    Tourism was always one of the sillier objections.

    Anyone ever go on holiday to an area that has electricity?
    - if Yes, then pylons were not an issue.

    Sillyness.

    14
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    Mute andrew
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:17 PM

    Quite right. Who can deny the pleasure of driving under and past networks of pylons. And there is nothing better in this world than sitting out on a summer’s day under a buzzing pylon enjoying a picnic (though, funnily enough people appear not to have come round to appreciating this quite yet)

    27
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    Mute Aunty Simmonite
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:21 PM

    Pylons are an essential part of our infrastructure but the new lot proposed are being financed by the public for the benefit of those involved in the wind power scam just as the inter connector to the UK was. It is no coincidence that Sir Reginald Sheffield who gets a handout of £1000 a day for his turbines is the father-in-law of the British PM. We need to know who is getting the money in Ireland

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    Mute Mitch Connor
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:33 PM

    Moronic response Andrew.

    Par for your course so.

    6
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    Mute Cillian_Durkin
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:47 PM

    For a lot of Germans and others who come here because of our maintained natural beauty then things like this are very important.

    Pylons are now viewed as something best suited to the 1980′s and others are moving away from them.

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    Mute Norman Hunter
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:56 PM

    Mitch, clearly the art of sarcasm is lost on you.

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    Mute Hank Schrader
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:21 PM

    Pylons are going to happen whether we like it or not. That or we sit and moan in 20 years as to why they didn’t plan for this 20 years ago..

    14
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    Mute Martin Bishop
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:26 PM

    I suppose the same argument could have been used for previously proposals for nuclear power in Ireland,

    But look, it never happened and given the way larger countrys are going by starting to get rid of nuclear power (Germany, Japan etc) it will likely never happen in Ireland

    35
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    Mute ThomasFrancisMeagher
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:59 PM

    Eirgrid & their political puppets love to portray those opposed to their plans as NIMBY’s but that is far from the truth. I don’t live near one of these proposed routes but I care deeply about Ireland & it’s environment & as far as I am concerned the whole country is my back yard. Every pylon Eirgrid try to erect will be opposed & not just by locals of that area but by people from all over Ireland, whether Eirgrid’s first attempt to steamroll the people of Ireland is in Louth, Mayo or Wexford I’ll be driving up from Waterford to lend my support & so will thousands of others & Eirgrid will see their costs escalate fast. So Eirgrid do the right thing & stop your bullying of rural Ireland & put these lines underground or off-shore.

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    Mute Harry Webb
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    Jan 9th 2014, 10:12 PM

    Hank isn’t Ireland worth fighting for in these matters? Why allow massive companies destroy our environment? This is imperialism at its worst!

    5
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    Mute phunkyboy
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    Jan 9th 2014, 10:18 PM

    That’s true the fallout is going to be massive they won’t go ahead with it.

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    Mute Paul Lanigan
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    Jan 9th 2014, 7:33 PM

    80% of tourists who come to Ireland never leave the capital. 80% of the 10% who do, go to Kerry, & Galway. So their impact on tourism will be negligible.

    Besides can shit holes like Offaly get any uglier?

    13
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    Mute Harry Webb
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    Jan 9th 2014, 10:18 PM

    What rubbish Paul! Every time is go home, with friends or family we hire a car, after a period in Dublin to the Western counties!

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    Mute Dee4
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    Jan 9th 2014, 6:53 PM

    cant imagine many tourists make decisions based on the amount of pylons in a country on the other hand they might have something to say about the bungalow and mcmansion puke the spoils the countryside.

    11
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    Mute Robert Barker
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    Jan 9th 2014, 5:53 PM

    Conrad hotel Dublin workers not paid any extra for working Christmas Day and New Year’s Day is this the norm now in Ireland ?? Just another day ….

    9
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    Mute phunkyboy
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    Jan 9th 2014, 10:16 PM

    This just isn’t right , this is our country not those arseh@les in the dail or big business to decide on its future. Don’t let it happen for the sake of your kids. I’ve seen wind farms destroy the very landscape that I once loved as a child and now it’s scarred by these monstrosities that 20 years from now probably will be obsolete and gone but their ugliness will remain forever. Short term gain long term pain.

    8
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    Mute Maurice Dodd
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    Jan 9th 2014, 11:40 PM

    So these huge pylons are being erected in our pristine country side to supply power to england? I wonder would they string them along the lake district??not a chance..

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