EU to recommend abolishing DST

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119664966#Comment_119664966

Greenland has 4!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119664966#Comment_119664966

Here you go,

https://www.howderfamily.com/blog/islands-split-by-time-zones/

now stop trying to be so argumentative over Cyprus, the point I originally made still stands.

bnt

Ireland is naturally 25-40 minutes behind GMT anyway, and DST extends that to 85-100 minutes. So I think we can stick to GMT as in winter.

highdef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119665342#Comment_119665342

Think of the summer months though when more people are out and about doing things outdoors. With all year round GMT and taking Dublin as an example, sunrise would be before 05:00 from late April to mid-August with half of June having sunrise before 04:00. The corresponding sunset times would be before 20:00 with the latest sunsets in June occurring before 21:00. I don't know about you but that seems like an awful waste of useful daylight. I generally don't do outdoor pursuits at 04:00, never mind several hours later on but I'm FAR more likely to be carrying out outdoor pursuits much later in the evening. My social and work life calendars don't support beginning the day at 03:00/04:00.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119666660#Comment_119666660

Yea , all year GMT is not a good idea for the reasons you outline.

Strangely enough because of our geographic location, changing the clocks twicya year is the best option.

highdef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119667460#Comment_119667460

Whilst I'd rather Irish Standard Time (IST) all year round and not have any changing of clocks, I would compromise with winter time/GMT for a shorter period of time, say mid November to mid February. But that in itself goes against what this thread is all about!

Mantis Toboggan

End of November to end of February would be fine.

dxhound2005

It is still trying to manipulate the daylight / darkness hours when there is simply not enough daylight in 24 hours. I think it is hardly worthwile doing it for 12 weeks. And for certain there would be objections from some parties, due to unforeseen consequences.

Also a lot of the discussion is centred round the "traditional" 9 to 5.30 working day. Nowadays there are a lot more varied schedules, where it is of little consequence to many whether there is an extra hour of semi brightness in the morning or the evening.

It's that time of the year again

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2022/1029/1332167-clocks/

prunudo

At this stage I just wish they would officially say one way or another which way its going to proceed and put to bed these articles which resurface this weekend every year.

I'd also like a personal guarantee from that Senator that I'll save €400 a year because last I checked the alternative to brighter evenings is darker mornings so heating and lighting will just be required in the morning instead.

kowloon

How about sticking to one time and letting businesses decide if they want to shift operating hours for part of the year? Might spread rush hour out a bit more when nobody can agree on the time.

Mantis Toboggan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119808441#Comment_119808441

You'd have the heating and lights on in the morning regardless!

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119811085#Comment_119811085

For early risers there's no difference.

But for the rest of us it would be our only chance to see daylight outside of working hours.

eire4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119811641#Comment_119811641

I am with you there. I wish we went with summertime all year and stopped changing the clocks twice a year.

Mantis Toboggan

Let the self imposed misery begin!

Thelonious Monk

I hate this dark evening nonsense but every bloody year we talk about it changing to stay in summertime all year and it never bloody happens. Best to just live with it at this stage.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119816655#Comment_119816655

You're a bit of a Green, into things in the natural way of things?

Noon is noon, midday is midday, midnight is midnight - these things mean something. The sun is approx south at noon or midday and we have have roughly the same amount of daylight either side of midday or night either side of midnight.

Is that not how it should be? In that case so called 'winter time' is our proper time.

Hotblack Desiato

It's not the "proper time" for anywhere west of Greenwich. Until 1916 there was "Irish TIme".

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119819446#Comment_119819446

Geographically speaking. Ireland should be 30 Minutes behind GMT, it was in the past.

Hotblack Desiato

Yes but that'd just make the wasted early morning daylight problem in spring and autumn even worse.

highdef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119822220#Comment_119822220

Yeah, taking Dublin as an example in mid-March, currently the sun rises around about 06:35 and sets around 18:30 (local time). If you had a poll with a varied group of people as to whether they are fine with that or if they'd like the option of the sun rising and setting an hour later instead, I'd bet a fair amount of money that the latter choice would the option that the vast majority would go for.

Even asking the same question in referring to a month earlier in mid-February would most likely have similar results where currently sunrise/sunset is around about 07:40/17:40 respectively. The thoughts of having usable daylight until around 19:00 in mid-February is very very enticing.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119816655#Comment_119816655

It won't happen as long as the uk doesn't change. having two different time zones either side of a border on a tiny island is ridiculous.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119822837#Comment_119822837

I don't see why we should let them dictate whether we change or not. Isn't an issue with Spain/Portugal. Brits will never change anyway.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119822658#Comment_119822658

You can compare your speculation with the results of the poll in the OP. And with the results of the EU consultation which got 4.6 million responses, 84% of which were in favour of keeping the same time all year round. If it is adopted it is then up to each member state to decide their own permanent time zone, just as they can decide their twice yearly time zones now. If Ireland wanted to be GMT plus half an hour or minus half an hour, nobody could have stopped us in the past, or can stop us in the future.

Changing the clock in December and February is a popular choice on the thread, but was never an option without leaving the EU. I never saw the point of having a change for 10 or 12 weeks myself. I am totally in favour of the same clock all year round, and not too bothered if it is the present one, or the one which we will have next March. Or any other variation. And let everyone else including the UK go whatever way they want.

cj maxx

If it makes things easier to maximise daylight in the winter, keep it . I know its not on the same scale, but its like the US dictating the whole country be on DC time. Silly even to propose it.

dxhound2005

Then change the clock by two or three hours to maximise daylight even more. Every country can do that if they wish. But "maximising" 7 or 8 hours daylight available on the 24 hour clock in mid winter is a futile fight against nature.

Quackster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119823543#Comment_119823543

As has been repeatedly mentioned, it's not about December/January but rather about November/February/March when daylight is unnecessarily wasted in the morning and would be much more useful in the evening.

I quite like the dark evenings.

Strumms

“ we’ve taken note of your recommendations but have decided as a sovereign nation to not accede to this request as we believe it’s in conflict with the wellbeing of the state and it’s citizens, we don’t recommend these recommendations. “

starts with time, what next ?

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119824724#Comment_119824724

Thats not unreasonable. If push came to shove the EU would probably allow us a derogation from the rule and we could continue to 'spring forward, fall back'.

It does have a couple of problems though. Perhaps the most minor is it looks as we are beholden to the UK, that because they won't do it therefore we won't. Not particularly a good look for us as we try to balance the politics on our island with looking for support from Brussels because of the Brexit issue.

But we also become awkward for business with the EU. Just as Heinrich or Pierre have got used to calling us at 10am their time for a conference call, suddenly it's changed and we aren't in the office until 11am. And a few months later it's back to 10am. When we are booking that train in Paris or connecting flight in Schipol or conference room in Cologne then it's up to us to remember that our current 1 hour offset may be 2 hours come the date.

What happens to that Cork to Europe flight that gets the business-people into Paris or Frankfurt for 8.30am every Monday? Is it going to arrive an hour late which is useless, or are the airlines going to have to have two different schedules for time of year?

There may be issues with phones, TVs, computers etc as they will need a programmed exception for us if we are doing it different to the rest of Europe. Now I'm not looking for sympathy for having to manually change my phone, but that app that is automatically running picks in a warehouse to get perishable stock to Rotterdam port every Monday at 8am is going to need re-writing.

So I think there's far more needs to be taken into account than a simple claim of sovereignty and a metaphorical shaking of the fist at Brussels.