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Analysis Can Ireland tackle climate change without a credible medium or long-term plan?

Assistant Professor in climate law, Dr Orla Kelleher looks at Ireland’s record on climate and finds we’re coming up short.

IT WILL COME as little surprise to anyone that another report has highlighted just how perilous a time we are living in as we face the effects of climate change.

This week, the World Meteorological Organisation released its State of the Global Climate report for 2022 and its findings are worrying. It found that the last eight years were the warmest of modern records, despite the La Niña weather phenomenon that would have had a cooling effect. The WMO says the global average temperatures last year were 1.15 degrees Celsius higher than the 1850-1900 average.

Ireland is not immune to the growing impact of planetary warming. Last year was this country’s hottest year on record, according to Met Éireann, with all-time highest maximum temperature records for July and August both broken (at Phoenix Park on 18 July with 33.0°C and Durrow, Co Laois on 13 August with 32.1°C).  

NO FEE OIREACHTAS PRES BIDEN VISIT MX-2 Joe Biden as he arrives into Leinster House ahead of a joint addresses to the Houses of the Oireachtas meeting Catherine Connolly, Leas-Cheann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann. TONY MAXWELL TONY MAXWELL

In his recent address to the Dáil, US President Joe Biden described climate change as the ‘single existential threat to the world.’ He spoke of a shared commitment between Ireland and the US to tackling the climate crisis to preserve our planet for future generations. He praised Ireland’s ‘famous 40 shades of green’ which he said ‘are being supplemented by green energy, green agriculture, green jobs.’ But does Ireland deserve this accolade? Are we living up to our climate commitments?

Meeting targets

The Irish government has been keen to change its reputation from a climate laggard to a climate leader. Irish politicians have been quite good at signing up to international climate commitments and more recently setting numerical emission reduction targets.

One such example is how Ireland ratified the Paris Agreement in 2016: an international climate accord which requires governments to set nationally chosen targets reflecting equity and their differentiated responsibility for climate change and capacity to act with a view to limiting global heating to +1.5°C.

Ireland is supposed to contribute to the Paris Agreement through the EU, which recently increased its climate ambition by committing to reduce its emissions by at least 55% by 2030 relative to 1990 levels and reaching climate neutrality by 2050.

Ireland has also had a national climate law on its statute books since 2015. The 2015 Climate Act did not set numerical emission reduction targets or provide for carbon budgets but instead introduced a requirement to produce national mitigation and adaptation plans every five years. In 2021, the Irish government strengthened the Climate Act by enshrining into law a carbon neutrality by 2050 target, an interim target of a 51% reduction by 2030 relative to 2018 levels, a system of carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings, and climate planning measures.

The improvements to Ireland’s climate law came in the wake of the ‘Climate Case Ireland’ decision. In this landmark ruling, the Supreme Court struck down the government’s flagship climate policy, the National Mitigation Plan, because it did not provide enough detail on how the government planned to achieve its 2050 national transition objective.

Hard choices

Making commitments is easy, but following through is the challenge. Emissions were projected to rise rather than rapidly fall over the lifetime of the plan but the Irish government has not been as good at translating these commitments into climate plans and policies, which result in substantial emission reductions.

Almost three years after Climate Case Ireland, the government has not yet adopted an up-to-date, long-term climate plan as required by our own and EU climate law.

Under the revised Climate Act, the government must adopt a national long-term climate strategy which specifies how the government plans to achieve net zero by 2050.

Under the EU Governance Regulation, Member States are required to produce medium and long-term plans, national energy and climate plans (NECPs) and national long-term strategies (nLTS). NECPs are 10-year plans setting out the policies and investment needed to deliver the EU’s climate and energy 2030 targets. The nLTS cover a 30-year horizon to 2050. The setting out and following of these plans is meant to help Member States to plan to contribute to the EU bloc’s climate neutrality by the 2050 target.

The Irish government has still not published the national long-term strategy three years after the deadline. This is despite the fact that the State is being taken to court by Friends of the Irish Environment and the European Commission for failing to produce an nLTS. 

It seems the intention of the government is to produce one single long-term strategy, but the final version is not expected until the end of 2023.

As for Ireland’s medium-term climate plan, the government prepared an NECP in 2018 but the document is now severely outdated and falls dramatically short of the level of ambition needed to meet our targets. That plan is currently being revised and a draft must be submitted to the European Commission by 30 June of this year. This deadline is fast approaching.

What’s the plan?

In the absence of a credible roadmap for how Ireland will achieve emission reductions necessary to meet our 2030 climate and energy targets and net-zero by 2050 target, we are essentially rudderless.

We do have the annually updated Climate Action Plan, but this is a short-term planning mechanism and is insufficient by itself to get us to our 2030 and 2050 targets. From a good climate governance perspective, medium and long-term climate plans should be informing the production of shorter-term plans like the Climate Action Plan and not the other way around.

Having medium and long-term climate plans in place would embed a long-term climate vision into policymaking and limit the risk of policymakers backtracking on their climate commitments.

Medium and long-term climate plans would also prevent us becoming locked in to high emissions activities like developing new fossil fuel infrastructure. This NECP revision process will be one of the last opportunities to plan for orderly and socially just emissions reductions.

EU law requires Member States to set out more than just climate and energy targets and objectives in their national energy and climate plans. They must also detail the enabling social policies the Member States are planning to ensure a just transition, mitigate social and employment impacts of decarbonisation and reduce energy poverty. Done well, the NECP is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to build public support and foster a sense of national ownership over the decarbonisation process. This can obviously be achieved through enabling social policies but also through early and effective public participation, which is mandatory under EU and international law. 

This is the most critical decade for climate action. How the government approaches the national energy and climate plans revision process will be the litmus test for whether Ireland is serious about getting climate policy right. All eyes should be on the government in the coming months to see if it delivers.

Dr Orla Kelleher is an assistant professor in climate, environmental and human rights law at Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology. She is currently conducting research on EU and Irish climate law on behalf of Environmental Justice Network Ireland.

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    Mute John K
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    Oct 15th 2023, 8:49 AM

    Another attack on freedom and private car ownership. Motorists are already taxed prohibitively with VAT, VRT, annual motor tax, fuel duties and insurance levies. The motor tax and carbon tax on fuel are based on/aimed at reducing emissions but apparently this isn’t enough and we need an additional tax. “This is a matter of basic health” sounds more like “I know what’s good for you and by God I’m going to make you do it, whether you like it or not”

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    Mute Gregory Daniel
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:05 AM

    Dublin traffic used to flow better before all the bike lanes were inserted over the past three years.

    Some of these bike lanes are hardly used while traffic sits backed up like never before along side the empty bike lanes

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    Mute Andy Felthersnatch
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:30 AM

    @Gregory Daniel: I’ve been saying this for years, look at the quays along the Liffey, you could fit an arctic truck in the bike lanes but barely any cyclists use them.
    The bus lanes are the same, it would make more sense to only have them restricted to buses at rush hour times, between 7-10am and 4-7pm.
    There’s no joined up thinking in this country from Dublin Corporation or successive governments. They say they want a greener city but all we have is tailbacks of traffic with their engines idling.

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    Mute
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    Oct 15th 2023, 10:57 AM

    @Gregory Daniel: That’s what wokeness does to a city.

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    Mute Tom Dillon
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    Oct 15th 2023, 11:49 AM

    @: ‘wokeness’ haha

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    Mute
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    Oct 15th 2023, 11:59 AM

    Go woke….don’t choke!

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    Mute Mick Duvanny
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    Oct 15th 2023, 12:09 PM

    @Andy Felthersnatch: I think you need to take off those rise tinted glasses. The quays were always overloaded long before bike lanes. Add in a big growth in population and they’d be worse again. Cars are not a long term solution

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    Mute
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    Oct 15th 2023, 12:21 PM

    @Tom Dillon: There you said it all by yourself I’m sorry I have no rainbow coloured lollies left to give you.

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    Mute Alan Dunne
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    Oct 15th 2023, 2:30 PM

    @Andy Felthersnatch: There is generally not many traffic issues between 10 and 4. Its between this time that the traffic moves freely as most people are on work. Alot of bus lanes are open to the motorists between 10 and 4 already if people read the signs they would see this.
    Very few people seem to notice this through Drumcondra for example and sit in the car lane not aware they can use the bus lane.

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    Mute Rafa C
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    Oct 15th 2023, 8:59 AM

    I’ve been saying it for years. They need 10 times or even more buses on the roads between 6am and 10am and 3pm and 7pm.

    I was on the road for the first time in a long time at 9.30am on a Wednesday and it was standstill on the motorway!

    If buses were a lot more frequent and €1 to use the bus during peak hours it would be a lot more realistic to introduce congestion charges.

    Our transport system is just so inadequate. The current system is already under strain with 100s left stranded at bus stops already during peak times.

    Imagine if 100s more joined the bus queues!?

    We need to tackle the transport inadequacy first.

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    Mute Kevin O'Hara
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:15 AM

    @Rafa C: Need to go underground enough it enough, the city is choked with buses and white vans. Have a look at D’Olier st, you have four lanes of traffic buses & taxis all fighting to get in one lane at College Green that is shared with the Luas. Also they cant get the staff, the 41 near me regularly regularly doesnt show and the serves our national airport!

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    Mute Rafa C
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:28 AM

    @Kevin O’Hara: Buses are stretched – needs to cater more to the city outer limits. The bus depots should be situated on the outskirts of the citys – take each starting point of a motorway as an example. Build park and rides. And have bus terminals sending out buses every 5 minutes between 6am and 10am for €1 travel between these times.

    12 buses leaving every hour – for 4 hours
    48 buses in 4 hours

    And the same from the opposite end of the motorway going opposite direction.

    We need 1000s of buses for rush hour traffic.

    And servicing the furthest reaches of the motorways with park and ride facilities that are free.

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    Mute Fiona Wyse
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:53 AM

    @Rafa C: The NTA would have a heart attack reading this stop talking sense!

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    Mute Rafa C
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    Oct 15th 2023, 10:11 AM

    @Fiona Wyse: Sorry about that! ROFL

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    Oct 15th 2023, 10:59 AM

    @Kevin O’Hara: Are they the white vans the people drive that work hard to build and maintain the city you live in?

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    Mute John O'sullivan
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    Oct 15th 2023, 2:07 PM

    @Rafa C: we are in ireland,joined up thinking is not a thing here,just look at eamonn ryan going off half cocked buying 134 electric buses at a cost of about 55 million that we have no charging infastructure for,they now are sitting in storage somewhere racking up big bills for lying idle

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    Mute Lydia Mcloughlin
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    Oct 15th 2023, 3:48 PM

    @Rafa C: I really don’t believe they have our best interests at heart at all, they just want your money. If we all got rid of our cars and walked or bussed it they’d just up the bus fares and charge you a walking tax.

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    Mute Rafa C
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    Oct 15th 2023, 5:33 PM

    @Lydia Mcloughlin: Yeh I know. Shoe tax would increase or something.

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    Mute Fred Coloe
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:18 AM

    Dublin City centre is already struggling to survive let alone prosper. Take out tourists, and the number of people in Dublin drops hugely. There are, already, many empty retail units incl on Grafton St. A congestion charge will kill Dublin. Much of the current congestion is caused by DCC !!

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    Mute Tommy Haze
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:02 AM

    Think COVID restrictions were bad?
    Wait till the Climate Fanatics get their fangs into you. You’ll be afraid to breathe.

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:32 AM

    @Tommy Haze: They were great for traffic

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    Mute Éamonn OKane
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:46 AM

    @Tommy Haze: for people with respiratory illness they already are and it’s getting worse.

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    Mute Dominic Leleu
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:09 AM

    Whoever support or come up with this kind of fees and charges will not be re-elected.

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    Mute Will Q
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    Oct 15th 2023, 10:05 AM

    It won’t be long before Dublin city centre is deserted,No people,No shops,No jobs…

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    Mute The Green Monkey
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:10 AM

    I’m not saying it’s the only problem but are you telling me there is nobody out there that can synchronise the fecking traffic lights. Millions of man hours wasted unnecessarily each year because of incompetence.

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    Mute Bren
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:22 AM

    And does anybody stop to think why we have so much congestion in Dublin it’s because the green party got rid of all the filter lights for turning left or right so everybody has to sit behind each other causing congestion. Its the fault of the Green party for all this mess, bringing traffic to a standstill. And then thinking the Irish people are stupid then by introducing congestion charges caused by the Green party what a mess of a country

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    Mute Matthew Mc
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:59 AM

    What about the people who work in our hospitals, powerstation, firestations, garda, water treatment facilities etc that are all localised in dublin city who work shift and live outside of Dublin City? It’s not a small group of people and it is totally unfeasible for them to get public transport due to working 24/7 365.

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    Mute Luka Roche
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    Oct 15th 2023, 10:46 AM

    Another way to squeeze money out of you and that’s all it is!!!

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    Mute William Noel Kelly
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:06 AM

    Dublin Port is routing heavy goods trucks through Northside residential road system, and planning expansion without clear service routes, due to the inadequacy of the Port Tunnel. This tunnel cannot route hazardous goods trucks,all of the higher containers, car/machinery/ prefab construction transporters.
    So all these drive through Dublin alongside commuter traffic, packed bus’s, past homes, schools, churches and retail zones.
    These 48tonne loads of explosive goods, deadly chemicals, etc, move through 24/7 without any separation,safety monitoring, or regard for the emissions or noise afflicted on the communities.
    Meanwhile,high frequency Bus Connect is increasing city diesel traffic,whilst EV bus’s lie idle!
    These defects need to be remediated urgently to improve air quality and safety.

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    Mute BL Music
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    Oct 15th 2023, 11:32 AM

    Our costal waters are polluted . Look at the Dublin coast . You cannot swim in poo , our rivers and lakes are also polluted but the so called greens are more interested in gouging money rather than addressing actual environment issues that we can visibly see .

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    Mute Vincent Frideo
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    Oct 15th 2023, 1:03 PM

    The first picture in the article explains the problem really well. We prioritise cars over buses (or other public transport) in our road design so they get stuck in traffic, disincentivising people from using them. Unless and until we stand up to entitled drivers when designing roads (see most of the rest of the comments), we won’t solve traffic problems in the city, with or without a congestion charge.

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    Mute Regular John
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    Oct 15th 2023, 1:49 PM

    @Vincent Frideo:
    “Entitled drivers” as you call them pay a lot of money to keep a car on the road and are penalised at every opportunity. It is those that pay nothing to use our roads that are the entitled one’s.

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    Mute Vincent Frideo
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    Oct 15th 2023, 2:03 PM

    @Regular John: all drivers pay a lot of money to keep a car on the road, not only entitled drivers. The irony is that the money they pay goes nowhere close to paying for the roads they use even though they do by far the most damage to the infrastructure. As long as they prevent faster and more efficient modes of transport from getting priority, then not only do they create a net loss to the exchequer, they also prevent other people who do less damage to roads from getting where they want to go more quickly.

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    Mute Lilly Lalogue
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    Oct 15th 2023, 5:39 PM

    @Vincent Frideo: Yes im an ‘entitled’ driver that needs to drive as no public transport to my job in a hospital which I’ve worked at for 20 years across the city at 630am. But somehow im now ‘entitled’. It’s a joke. Sick of this constant bashing.

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    Mute Vincent Frideo
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    Oct 15th 2023, 7:46 PM

    @Lilly Lalogue: As you’ll have read above, I differentiated between “driver” and “entitled driver”, so I’m wondering which of the following you’re identifying with when you say you’re an “entitled driver”.

    Is it:
    - You object to any and all attempts to prioritise public transport so that the majority of commuters can reach the centre of town quickly and predictably, even though it would ultimately take cars of the road that delay your journey to work?
    - You scream whenever car parking spaces are reallocated to other uses and park anyway on the pavement because you think you’re entitled to park next to the front door of anywhere you’re visiting?
    - You never stop at lights behind the advanced stopping line but regularly encroach on pedestrian crosses and bike boxes because you don’t care about intimidating anyone not in a car?
    - You object to speed controls that would make residential streets safe?
    - You think that although your car creates more costs to the exchequer than the motor and fuel taxes you pay, you reckon those taxes mean that no one else should ever use roads?

    If you don’t engage in any of these behaviours, then I’m not sure what you think you’re an “entitled driver”. Maybe you could explain?

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    Mute Ross O'
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    Oct 15th 2023, 12:04 PM

    They can shove their congestion charges up their hoop. The absolute BRASS of it all.

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    Mute Regular John
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    Oct 15th 2023, 1:52 PM

    @Ross O’:
    Yes. As if motorists aren’t gouged enough at every opportunity already.

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Oct 15th 2023, 9:31 AM

    Warranted and necessary, but it’s unavoidably elitist. The real problem is why we all have to be commuting at exactly the same time, during the pandemic we were able to observe a much more workable system but with willful glee, we have abandoned any learnings. Yes, do the congestion charge but some thinking around the movement of people and goods would be amazing, since the massive success of the Luas nothing has happened in transport. We’re supposed to believe Ai is taking over while sitting at moronic traffic light systems invented in the 1800s ffs.

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    Mute furry01
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    Oct 15th 2023, 11:02 AM

    Another good reason, as if it was needed, not to visit our squallid capital.

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    Mute Max Cooper
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    Oct 15th 2023, 1:15 PM

    Just close the Cities down all together. Put a “Closed for Business” sign at each entry point of our Cities. Eamon and the Cabbage heads will have loads of room for Cycling around. They might have to get off their bikes occasionally to clear the Tumble Weed. On the streets out of their way.

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    Mute Chris O'Brien
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    Oct 15th 2023, 12:06 PM

    As always, Dubs think they live in a bubble and the rest of the country doesn’t exist.

    Congestion zones. In a country with no meaningful public transport?

    So just more taxes on non-Dubs who are forced to go to Dublin because our entire country is obsessed with one city.

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    Mute J M
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    Oct 15th 2023, 10:44 AM

    Our little island could of been truly a Emerald Isle we where 20 odd year’s behind other countries and these current policies are not new , ulez in LDN was put out 10 or so years ago. Where we had no problems yet we followed other countries and copied their blue prints. When we we should of been looking ahead not creating the issues others had in the name of progress.

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    Mute Geoff Bateman
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    Oct 15th 2023, 2:16 PM

    Next they will be taxing all human beings for polluting the atmosphere exhaling carbon dioxide..When will it ever end?

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    Mute james dooley
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    Oct 15th 2023, 3:16 PM

    Havd to comment as this seems to be one of very few articals one can comment. Journal locking us out again such as Tony houlihan artical

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    Mute Brian Deadly
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    Oct 16th 2023, 1:04 AM

    @james dooley: agreed James…and not by chance. However when I see this at least I know that what the article is about is probably incorrectly protrayed or just plain propaganda

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    Mute Steve O'Hara Smith.
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    Oct 15th 2023, 11:04 AM

    Ban all internal combustion vehicles in city centres, also all private cars and provide good, high density electric public transport.
    Result no pollution, no congestion, car parks available for redevelopment as something useful.
    This is not even hard.

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    Mute Regular John
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    Oct 15th 2023, 11:47 AM

    @Steve O’Hara Smith.:
    What a load of nonsense…

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    Mute John Moore
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    Oct 16th 2023, 10:21 AM

    @Steve O’Hara Smith.: The part where you said provide high density electric public transport. Yeah that seems to be hard because they can’t do it. They are good at producing reports and videos and brochures. Oh and public consultations but nothing ever actually gets built.

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    Mute Alan Dunne
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    Oct 15th 2023, 2:23 PM

    Congestion charges are a tax plain and simple. If you don’t want cars coming into the city just ban them for people living outside the canals. Build proper Park and Rides with a proper bus service from them into the city. Just Stop Taxing The Motorist!!!!

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    Mute Brian Deadly
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    Oct 16th 2023, 1:01 AM

    this is NOT about health…lets be 100% honest here and stop pretending

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    Mute Peter McCormack
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    Oct 15th 2023, 3:07 PM

    The article argues the congestion charges should be introduced to improve air quality.
    Then it states that emissions from cars is not really a problem most of the time.
    The expansion of EV cars and busses is the real solution to reducing traffic emissions and that is already happening.

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    Mute John Moore
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    Oct 16th 2023, 10:18 AM

    Did we build a metro? Either metro north as it was or metro west? Did we put in the dart underground? Did we build the numerous LUAS lines that were planned? All of these things were deemed necessary over 20 years ago and the only things that happened were 2 LUAS lines going south and a small extension north to broombridge. Given that the populations has increased dramatically since even those days and almost none of what was planned took place from an infrastructure point of view why are congestion charges even being mentioned? That is the type of thing you do when you have good alternatives for people. We don’t. We didn’t invest.

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