Children would go to school in darkness if we aligned with Europe

Every year as Ireland puts the clocks back one hour at the end of October, we hear the arguments why Ireland should drop daylight saving time or why we should even align with mainland Europe and adopt Central European Time (CET).

The arguments include that this will help people who are affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), will allow people to have more time to go out walking or playing sports in brighter evenings, that it will reduce road fatalities between 4pm and 7pm and that it will save countless tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

Changing the clocks forward or back always causes confusion.