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TRANSPORT MINISTER AND Green Party leader Eamonn Ryan has said he “fundamentally disagrees” with Fine Gael MEP candidate Regina Doherty after she likened cycle lanes in Dublin City to the Berlin Wall and accused Green politicians of being “arrogant” and “autocratic”.
Doherty said that the Green Party “have turned Dublin into a spaghetti junction of cycle lanes that have divided the city like East and West Berlin” and that they are “in thrall to the cyclists’ lobby to such an extent they are now doing damage to the concept of cycling”.
“We need to combat the over-mighty Greens in Europe,” she said and pledged to be a “watchdog” in the EU.
“We need a credible watchdog in Europe to mark the Greens on climate change. The Greens currently are doing more harm than good to the climate change agenda.”
She also criticised the Dublin Transport Plan, a Dublin City Council initiative which aims to divert through traffic away from the city centre.
Doherty said that the public consultation carried out by DCC had been insufficient.
“I fundamentally disagree with her. But that’s politics. You’re allowed to disagree. It’s the people that matter, it’s what they think,” Ryan said today in response to Doherty’s outlandish remarks.
He agreed that talking down to people is not the best way to effect change in climate policy, adding that transitioning to greener policies won’t work if it is “top down, telling people what to do, wagging the finger, blaming people”.
“This has to be asking people for help and come from the bottom up as well.”
Responding to the accusation of arrogance on the part of Green politicians, Ryan said:
“There’s no arrogance in the approach that we’re taking to climate. It’s the exact opposite. It’s actually trying to build consensus, build political consensus.”
He said all parties have a role to play in that respect.
“Now I differ fundamentally with Regina Doherty on the vision of the city. I don’t believe Dublin is going to work for Dubliners if it’s clogged with traffic, if it’s not safe to cycle and to walk, if you don’t have a functional public transport system.”
“I think we need to change the city for the better by switching to these sustainable alternatives, which is good for climate but also good for social justice, good for health, good for the economy, because the city doesn’t work when it’s gridlocked.
He said he hopes people vote on Friday for “strong climate action”.
“They do have a choice. The European election is all about this, will the EPP (European People’s Party) and Fine Gael, will they go with the right in stopping the Green Deal?
“There’s every sign that they might well do. The future of our climate response is at stake in this election,” Ryan said.
Green MEP Ciarán Cuffe said during a debate on RTÉ last night that Doherty’s comments were “something you might hear at the far end of a pub at closing time”.
Cuffe said Doherty and Fine Gael were “living in the past”.
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Not going to get a straight answer from them & anyway never mind about the 10% when are we going to see the rest fall back to where it was in jan 2022. They were still making plenty of profit and still gouging us but at least we had a chance of paying it. Electric Ireland have been putting their hands in our pockets for years it’s about time we cut it off. Some of us need electricity for water that’s the sad part of it. They don’t seem to understand that we have other bills to pay. They can’t come first every time. Most of us live pay-check to pay-check. We pay bills as we go, some months you just have to sit back and be quiet because we just don’t physically have the money to give you. And no amount of texts, phone calls and nasty letters will get you the money any faster.
Show me any other necessity of life that is subject to the whims of big business like the electricity supply. It should be protected like water is. Or at least the government should give a 100% grant to fit solar PV panels. The way it is now you have to have the cash to pay for it before you can get them. I don’t know about you lot but I don’t have a spare €15 never mind a spare €15,000-€20,000
@Colm O’Leary: Your smart phone and the price of pints.
@Don Hogan: Why do you presume to know other peoples circumstances? So many are struggling, lucky you if you are not one of them.
@Don Hogan: I don’t know what the price of pints has to do with anything I don’t drink and I haven’t been out to a pub in 5 years and my smartphone is the most basic model, I upgrade only when my old phone dies which is what happened to my last phone. An old iPhone 5 I kept it going long after apple had stopped supporting it.. so if your implying I’m living high on the hog then I’m not. I’m barely scraping by.
This is crazy, this is how we’re driving young people and not only young people just the population out of this country. The big companies are skyrocketing prices and giving us no hope. Record profits year on year, draining our pockets and filling theirs.
So we can read the usual nonsense rhetoric reply….why bother??
I would but had no electricity all morning can’t change my phone still get the bill on time
Bring the whole energy sector into public ownership, then each year have a price increase equal or less than CPI %. No complaints about price gouging then.
You are in government. You have the power to do something about it. You are more than well paid by the people of this country so do something for them for a change instead of just talking about it.
The business sector was hit with hikes before the residential. In June 22 i was paying on a retail unit 55c per unit. From an initial 21c when i had opened the account the July before COVID. I believe it’s fair they reduce it as the price hikes closed us down.. if it returns to normal we wight return as well ..
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