What is the main environmental issue facing Ireland in 2015?

Baxterly13

What is the main environmental issue facing Ireland in 2015?

210

Definitely apathy, and regrettably we seem to have become increasingly disconnected from our local environment.

Uncle Ben

Homelessness

melbite

what do you think Baxterly?

Cork boy 55

Carbon output is too high

porsche959

Cows emitting methane.

syklops

Litter and by extension waste disposal is much overlooked and needs to be reformed.

I used to live in a city where domestic waste disposal was paid for by the city taxes. You didn't have to buy a tag for your bin, or sign up to a company, you just put your rubbish in your bin, put your bin on the street and every other day it got picked up and disposed of. As a result fly-tipping didn't happen. There was no need for anyone to flytip because your rubbish was collected and disposed of.

Irish city and county councillors are afraid of rubbish. I even heard one councillor on the radio defending the decision to remove bins from a well known Galway beach because, and I quote, "Bins attract rubbish".

Baxterly13

melbite wrote: »

what do you think Baxterly?

In my opinion the number one issue is most definitely carbon emissions

Nukem

Baxterly13 wrote: »

In my opinion the number one issue is most definitely carbon emissions

Agree - carbon emission are becoming increasingly topical

It was strange to here Alex White speak about decarbonisation of Ireland during a DCENR briefing yesterday, when we still are giving Coal and Peat power plants priority dispatch. Seems a bit conflicting also to hear about pro renewable energy when there is little incentive for energy efficiency or energy reduction.

Appears there are conflicting policies within the policy

Uncle Ben

syklops wrote: »

Litter and by extension waste disposal is much overlooked and needs to be reformed.

I used to live in a city where domestic waste disposal was paid for by the city taxes. You didn't have to buy a tag for your bin, or sign up to a company, you just put your rubbish in your bin, put your bin on the street and every other day it got picked up and disposed of. As a result fly-tipping didn't happen. There was no need for anyone to flytip because your rubbish was collected and disposed of.

Irish city and county councillors are afraid of rubbish. I even heard one councillor on the radio defending the decision to remove bins from a well known Galway beach because, and I quote, "Bins attract rubbish".

I think there could be some method to his madness. Didn't Westport dramatically reduce if not remove their litter bins from the town and yet they continue to top the leagues of the tidy town awards.

Jim Martin

syklops wrote: »

I used to live in a city where domestic waste disposal was paid for by the city taxes. You didn't have to buy a tag for your bin, or sign up to a company, you just put your rubbish in your bin, put your bin on the street and every other day it got picked up and disposed of. As a result fly-tipping didn't happen. There was no need for anyone to flytip because your rubbish was collected and disposed of.

I

And that's the civilised way it should be, urban & rural - problem solved! This obsession with attempting to private everything will be the death of us!

Irish Steve

syklops wrote: »

Litter and by extension waste disposal is much overlooked and needs to be reformed.

I used to live in a city where domestic waste disposal was paid for by the city taxes. You didn't have to buy a tag for your bin, or sign up to a company, you just put your rubbish in your bin, put your bin on the street and every other day it got picked up and disposed of. As a result fly-tipping didn't happen. There was no need for anyone to flytip because your rubbish was collected and disposed of.

Irish city and county councillors are afraid of rubbish. I even heard one councillor on the radio defending the decision to remove bins from a well known Galway beach because, and I quote, "Bins attract rubbish".

But the Irish don't want to pay for services, as has been seen by the massive protests about bin charges, and water charges, and local property tax. Private services are cheaper than the local authority providing the same service (don't ask!), but regardless of who delivers the service, it still has to be paid for, and that's where the trouble starts, if people won't pay for local services, then something has to give, and in a lot of cases, it's things like rubbish collection, or street maintenance (simple thongs like removing chewing gum from pavements) , or parks maintenance, or swimming pools, or similar that are no longer available as a low price service.

The "low cost/no cost" attitude is what has this country destroyed. At the same time, the cost of our "state" services as value for money has to be seriously questioned, I'm not convinced by some of the spin we get from the service providers.

I'd be very happy to see a local tax on things like take away containers, chewing gum, cigarettes, and plastic drink bottles and aluminium cans, directed towards providing local cleaning and waste disposal services.

Having said that, while the mentality of bringing a small bag of domestic waste to throw in the litter bin on the way to town persists, the litter bins will be removed, due to the health risk that follows on them being used for domestic waste and things like food waste, which is an increasing problem in this area.

syklops

Irish Steve wrote: »

But the Irish don't want to pay for services, as has been seen by the massive protests about bin charges, and water charges, and local property tax. Private services are cheaper than the local authority providing the same service (don't ask!), but regardless of who delivers the service, it still has to be paid for, and that's where the trouble starts, if people won't pay for local services, then something has to give, and in a lot of cases, it's things like rubbish collection, or street maintenance (simple thongs like removing chewing gum from pavements) , or parks maintenance, or swimming pools, or similar that are no longer available as a low price service.

The "low cost/no cost" attitude is what has this country destroyed. At the same time, the cost of our "state" services as value for money has to be seriously questioned, I'm not convinced by some of the spin we get from the service providers.

I'd be very happy to see a local tax on things like take away containers, chewing gum, cigarettes, and plastic drink bottles and aluminium cans, directed towards providing local cleaning and waste disposal services.

Having said that, while the mentality of bringing a small bag of domestic waste to throw in the litter bin on the way to town persists, the litter bins will be removed, due to the health risk that follows on them being used for domestic waste and things like food waste, which is an increasing problem in this area.

At the risk of contradicting myself, the reason the irish don't want to pay for services is because they are all add-on taxes. You get your paycheck at the end/start of the month and you see all your taxes which have been deducted and you think, well, what I have left is mine. Then the TV license inspector comes a calling. I wouldnt notice an additional 12 euros taken from my USC contribution a month which could go towards my TV license, and massive savings could be made by getting rid of all the inspectors, not having to pay for the TV and radio ads reminding you to pay it, lawyers to prosecute people who don't pay and all the additional costs associated with recovering that particular tax.

We pay a lot of tax in this country already, but instead of ring fencing it to pay for different things, it just seems to go into a blackhole or you ave the ludicrous situation where the Vehicle Registration Tax is paying for the water, and the cigarette duty is funding the HSE. "We ran the gas off the electricity and the electricity off the gas"

syklops

Deedsie wrote: »

I agree with most of that completely. The tv licence really should become a broadcasting charge taken from taxation. But what about those people who don't work? Should they be exempt?

They keep saying the USC is the one tax everyone pays, so take it from that.