Letters to the Editor: Sustainable infrastructure must abide by environmental safeguards
'Planning laws and EU environmental directives... exist because Ireland has a long history of ecological damage and repeated infringements of EU law.' Picture: iStock
Kevin O’Donovan’s recent article — ‘Challenges around infrastructure are finally being tackled’ ( , December 9) — expresses understandable frustration with delays to renewable energy projects.
However, his criticism of the planning system and of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) echoes a troubling theme within the Government’s Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce; that environmental directives and judicial oversight are impediments rather than essential safeguards.
Planning laws and EU environmental directives do not exist to frustrate development; they exist because Ireland has a long history of ecological damage and repeated infringements of EU law.
The Derrybrien wind farm case, which resulted in landslides, habitat loss and substantial EU penalties, stands as a stark reminder of what happens when rigorous assessment is dismissed as a mere technicality. Against that backdrop, it is disquieting to see the taskforce advocate the reduction of judicial review and “regulatory simplification” without an equally strong commitment to improving the quality of initial planning, consultation, and environmental appraisal.
Mr O’Donovan objects that the NPWS has delayed certain projects over compliance with “individual directives”. But these directives are legally binding and grounded in evidence. Developers also well understand them. To frame the NPWS as a barrier rather than a guardian of public interest risks promoting shortcuts that will damage both the environment and the credibility of the renewable sector.
The North Irish Sea Array offshore wind project Statkraft is advancing off Skerries, Co Dublin, illustrates why oversight matters. Since that proposal first emerged, the area has been formally recognised as internationally significant for seabirds and designated as a Special Protection Area. It overlaps a marine Special Area of Conservation for harbour porpoise and reef habitats and lies along a major migratory flyway.
These concerns are substantive, not obstructionist. We can, of course, avoid potential conflicts regarding this. With modern turbine technology, deeper-water siting is entirely feasible, allowing renewable targets to be met without placing industrial infrastructure adjacent to ecologically sensitive zones.
If the taskforce focuses primarily on speeding up delivery while overlooking why citizens and regulators raise objections in the first place, it risks repeating past mistakes.
Sustainable infrastructure requires not the circumvention of safeguards, but full adherence to them. Environmental protection is not an optional extra; it is the foundation of responsible, future-proofed development.
I am trying to trace a friend of many years past. Her name was/is Rosarie O’Sullivan (her surname may have changed if she married) and she originally lived in Passage West, Co Cork.
When I knew her she worked for Irish Steel in Haulbowline.
Rosarie was mentioned a number of times in the Cork Examiner. If she or one of her relatives or friends would like to get in touch, please contact me at frank.hogan50@gmail.com.
The Department of Education is conducting an online poll — the ‘Primary School Survey’ — intended for parents of children currently in school and parents who have children who will attend school in the future.
The poll hopes that the results will help them in future planning on deciding religious affiliation, mixed or single gender, and teaching through English or Irish.
However, the poll has a deeply faulty and flawed system.
It has no electoral register. It is totally open to fraud and abuse of the system. Therefore the results will be completely meaningless.
All anyone needs to do is click on the website. Put in any random Eircode and fill the questionnaire.
There is no need for confirmation of the Eircode; no need for a name; no need for an email address; no need for ID, and no need to confirm you children are at school or waiting to go there.
Just tick a box and name any school.
One person from a single computer or iPhone could complete the poll 1,000 times or more from the same device.
Why not approach parents via the school and each school’s waiting list (deleting duplicates in the latter case as many parents apply to multiple schools).
A new poll conducted along these lines is absolutely essential as the current one is deeply flawed and absolutely useless.
I write in response to Colin Sheridan’s column — ‘End of the affair shows Salah love is conditional’ ( , December 8).
Whilst I agree Arne Slot is under pressure, his portrayal of the manager and comprehension of the situation and team cohesion is misfounded and inaccurate.
To portrait Slot as a caricature of an IT geek is to hopelessly misunderstand a complex and passionate individual. He’s a dedicated, yes smiling, professional and already has a proven Liverpool track record. I was fortunate enough to see him emotional and jubilant in an electric Anfield atmosphere.
This season, notably the last number of games, Liverpool have got it wrong, but not only Slot. It’s entirely biased for Mr Sheridan to post the blame on Slot.
If anything, Salah is right in crying out, a prompt and necessary call for help. The team is in tatters and it most certainly is not Salah’s fault. Look at the reality of events: Against Leeds 12 players received less than 5/10 on the BBC ratings. And yes, Salah did not play. No-one is criticising Szoboszlai’s obnoxious gesture towards Leeds fans, with the game not even over. Fortunately Ireland national team fans have shared similar irrational antics. Against Sunderland similar story, similar disastrous ratings.
With new signings mostly ineffective, the old guard is no longer reliable. Rooney’s criticism of van Dijk, though I hate to admit it, is exact. Konate is floundering even faster.
Salah is right to roar; tear open the dressing room door and act now or face even worse BBC ratings.
If Slot or Salah — or eventually both — are to depart, be it so. No individual is greater than the club and their set of loyal fans.
Salah’s legacy is secured, an incredible goal scorer and a beautiful individual.
Every true fan and football supporter knows that Slot has lost the dressing room. I sincerely hope he will turn the situation around, although it is a big ask.
Perhaps it’s time he learnt to drive a bus? Whether or not Salah is aboard, only time will tell. But I’m certain Slot would smile asking for the fare.
Growing up in rural Ireland in the 1960s and ’70s a memory is etched in my head.
The Diary of Anne Frank was being discussed in class. I remember the question that was being explored: ‘What would you have done? What would I have done? Would we have looked away while our neighbours were being torn from their homes and loaded onto trains?’
Of course we wouldn’t, we couldn’t, we thought. Yet I remember being torn. Perhaps the cost would have been too great, perhaps ourselves and our families would have suffered a similar fate had we spoken out. So perhaps we would have felt we could do nothing, we had to protect our own, so we would have turned away.
Yet here we are in 2025, our government refusing to take the minimum steps to try to discourage the ethnic cleansing that is being perpetrated in Gaza and the West Bank by our trading partners Israel. Diluting, stalling, obfuscating with regard to the Occupied Territories Bill, and not because of the fear of being taken out and shot, but because of the fear of impacting foreign direct investment (FDI).
How can we teach our children the difference between right and wrong, the values of upholding international law, the values of justice and equality, while we continue to allow Israel to act with impunity?
Or perhaps the maxim of ‘do unto others as you as you would have done unto you’ should be amended to fit in to the modern way of doing things in Ireland, ‘do unto others … unless it might be seen to have a negative effect on FDI’.
Despite the so called ‘ceasefire’ the population of Gaza are still living in constant fear of attacks from the Israel Defence Forces. To compound the starvation, the cold, the disease, and the mud, at least 70 innocent Palestinian children have been killed since the ceasefire began, some of them burnt alive in their tents, while in the illegally occupied West Bank, attacks on Palestinians, home demolitions and the seizure and destruction of Palestinian agricultural land and businesses continues to escalate.
We need to see the immediate implementation of the Occupied Territories Bill, including services, as was strongly recommended by the cross party Oireachtas committee on foreign affairs and trade last July.
We were promised the Occupied Territories Bill last Christmas, pre election, how many more Christmases will pass before we see it implemented?
