Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

So just to be clear, the SMALLEST party in a coalition government is the party that you hold responsible for NOT implementing a policy that wasn't in any party's manifesto? A policy the government had no mandate for? A policy that would have caused absolute uproar across the business community, like this:

You call them the smallest party in the coalition government, I call them the party that had the ministry of transport and the party with the greatest mandate for cyclists. We are both correct

I guess in a choice between active travel and business profits there was only going to be one winner for them

But there's no connection between the 2 policies. Different departments, with different remits and goals. The only way you'll get something cohesive done cross department is be having a tzar in place or when the Taoiseach has egg on his face and knocks heads together.

The toothless "right to ask to work remotely" (that's all it is, the only thing the employer has to do is show they've read and "considered" it within 30 days) you can bet resulted from lobbying by IBEC, commercial property concerns, and all the other usual suspects like car park owners Dublin Town or whatever they're called etc. I'd bet the house that it wasn't Eamonn Ryan that was being lobbied either.

He didn't say that. Are you being disingenuous deliberately? It hardly serves to support your argument.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt about not being disingenuous and refer you back to my original comment - that the legislation is toothless and was a waste of effort in the drafting as it stands.

Eamonn Ryan could not have "brought in" legislation - that requires debate and ratification by the Dail/Seanad/President etc. - no more than Michael Healy Rae as minister for trees could "bring in" legislation granting every person in Kerry a brand new road right up to their front door. Yes, he could hypothetically have proposed it, but why would he have when it was not part of the GPs manifesto in election 2020 which took place pre-Covid when WFH wasn't on the table. There were enough issues that they had promised to deliver on to keep them occupied at any rate

The parts of the relevant act were drafted by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The Minister at the time (2022-2024) was Simon Coveney, a member of Fine Gael.

I don't understand why you aren't banned when you reliably and regularly post false information and bad-faith arguments, but I obviously amn't questioning moderator decisions - just expressing my bemusement.

I believe it's because the moderators don't want to stifle healthy debate

Allowing only one opinion in the room closes off minds and leads to situations like Trump in America. Debate is a beautiful thing and we can all learn something from each other regardless of how different the opinions are

Now if somebody is being personally abusive to somebody, that's obviously a different story

Again we're going off topic mind...

Quite shocking. Hope the driver is caught/traced. Anyone leaving the scene of an incident like this is pure thrash and should be put off the road forever or a very long time, with no mitigation.

Hope the injured do not have significant / life changing injuries.

It's a bit patronising and insulting to suggest that without posts like yours there'd be no healthy debate. Take @AndrewJRenko - he regularly comes up against pretty robust challenges to his views from other regular posters in the cycling forum. The idea that the cycling community is some Borg-like hive mind is nonsense.

It's up there with "people learn from their mistakes" as justification for not imposing a custodial sentence.

Just to be clear, I don't believe the cycling community at large is some Borg-like hive mind and it's because posts like mine and yours and many others are made and debated rather than being deleted.

There are always some who argue cycle lanes/cyclists/green agenda is the cause, what was the question again? Shut up, I'm right, you're wrong

Likewise there are some that would always argue motorists are the problem, cycle lanes are the solution even if nobody uses them, what was the question again? Shut up, I'm right, you're wrong

Generally speaking there is not much of either of the above in the cycling community

They seem to panic especially in cases where they've been drinking and they need a few hours for the alcohol to leave their system before reporting themselves to the cop shop.