Irish Examiner view: Hotline may set sparks flying across fences
Uisce Éireann to enforce water conservation order for certain areas from midnight on Thursday until August 26.
The ongoing heatwave is posing any number of challenges for us all.
Dealing with temperatures of over 25C day after day is no laughing matter, as anyone who has sought to buy an electric fan will attest.
It is good to see, however, that some of the more dangerous questions being asked about the heatwave are being answered with skill and courage.
This week, Manon Gilbart reported that Cork County Council had saluted all the agencies involved in a major firefighting operation tackling a serious gorse fire near Crosshaven.
Crews from Cork City Fire Brigade, as well as units from the Cork county fire services in Carrigaline, Crosshaven, and Bandon, attended the scene of the blaze, while the Doyle Shipping Group also deployed its firefighting escort tug, the DSG Alex, to fight the fire from the water.
The council added that the coastguard was requested to assist and provided valuable support, while the Port of Cork’s firefighting tug boat also attended the scene and assisted operations.
Inter-agency co-operation on this scale is welcome, and augurs well for the future if temperatures like this are to become the new normal.
It is encouraging to see this level of co-ordination among the organisations which may have to deal with the malign aspects of such heatwaves.
Co-operation and co-ordination of a different kind are being called for in another heatwave-related context.
Uisce Éireann has defended its introduction of a hotline which will allow people to report suspected “non-essential” water use as a hosepipe ban is issued for certain parts of the country.
In recent media appearances, Uisce Éireann representatives have stated that the reason for the hotline is to avoid confrontations and disputes between neighbours if the ban is being breached.
People have the option of contacting the water utility instead, which will then follow up with individuals.
Whether the use of anonymous informants will contribute to neighbourhood harmony is debatable.
If anything, it looks likely to raise temperatures even further.
Despite our best efforts over the decades to combat the habit, smoking remains a serious public health challenge.
In 2013, the Tobacco Free Ireland action plan was launched.
It included the goal of having a smoking prevalence rate of under 5% in Ireland by 2025, which would make the country smoking-free, for all intents and purposes.
That goal has proven too ambitious, however, with sources telling this newspaper that smoking prevalence remains “stubbornly high” at approximately 17%.
As reported by Louise Burne, however, Cabinet is to consider emulating a British initiative to tackle this problem: Earlier this year, the UK introduced a generational ban.
This made it illegal for tobacco to be sold to people born on or after January 1, 2009.
If such a measure were introduced here, then it would mean smoking would be completely banned within 70 or 80 years as an entire generation — and subsequent generations — would not be legally permitted to buy cigarettes.
It is expected that a memo could be brought before Cabinet on this matter very soon.
Laudable though this proposal may be, it comes with an obvious, but necessary, caveat.
We do not lack laws which are beneficial and positive, but the enforcement of such laws often leaves much to be desired.
Age-related barriers to consumption are not foolproof, as evidenced by the long-standing issue of underage drinking, and getting older people to buy cigarettes is an obvious way around this measure.
However, it should be noted that the Government is also considering other measures that could be introduced in tandem with the generational ban to make smoking a less appealing proposition.
Such measures would include ensuring cigarettes have a “mandatory appearance” to make them appear less attractive.
Moreover, the generational ban mentioned above has one huge advantage.
Eventually, the population of Ireland will simply age out of eligibility to buy cigarettes.
For that reason alone, this initiative is worth pursuing.
The death was announced this week of the actor Sam Neill, the star of , , and many other movies and TV shows. He was 78.
Neill was born in Northern Ireland and, even though his family moved to New Zealand when he was a child, he retained a connection with this island.
In one of his last interviews, he said that, when Ireland played New Zealand in rugby, he supported Ireland.
When not acting, Neill’s life revolved around his farm and winery in New Zealand.
Here, he attained a new level of fame with social media posts about his animals — many of them named after co-stars such as Helena Bonham Carter (a cow), Jeff Goldblum (a sheep), and Kerry actor Michael Fassbender (a cockerel who survived an attack by a stray dog).
Since his passing, many people, from former New Zealand prime minister Jacinta Ardern to a host of his co-stars, have paid tribute to Neill for his kindness and courtesy.
This newspaper caught a glimpse of that courtesy some years ago when seeking the actor’s memories of his role in a TV adaptation of Edna O’Brien’s .
Neill proved hard to find but, when located at sea, he took the trouble to contribute thoughtful, detailed answers about a production he had featured in over a quarter of a century before.
The character he played in was Mr Gentleman.
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