State refuses release of 2020 images recording ongoing turf cutting on protected raised bogs

Machinery at work on 28 protected raised bogs confirmed to Europe by Ireland

The National Parks and Wildlife Service has refused to release images recording ongoing destruction of Ireland’s protected raised bogs during 2020.

The request came from the environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] who first brought the activities to the attention of the authorities in 2009. The prohibition on cutting on 56 Special Areas of Conservation {SAC] protected raised bogs was due to take effect in 1998 but was not imposed until 2009. read full story / add a comment

The environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment has called on Taoiseach Micheal Martin to clarify the Irish government's position in relation to efforts to allow the EU to subsidize nuclear power plants. According to a document seen by Friends of the Irish environment, several countries, including France, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, want the EU to allow subsidies to nuclear plants in return for backing a higher EU 2030 climate target. However, other countries including Luxembourg and Austria, are rejecting these plans. The position of the Irish government is not clear. read full story / add a comment

Campaigners for opening of Court records claim initial victory
High Court Direction to release records welcomed

A new ‘High Court Practice Direction’ issued by the Court Service on 13 November 2020 has been claimed as an initial victory by campaigners seeking access to Court records after the judicial process is completed. [1]

The Direction issued recently by Mary Irvine, President of the High Court, allows any member of the public to seek access to the written submissions provided to the Court by parties in proceedings after 11 January 2021. read full story / add a comment

Atlantic Bays stripped of wild fish to eat lice off farmed salmon
Records show 1.6m wild fish destroyed in 4 years

More than 1.6 million wild fish were taken from Ireland’s Atlantic bays to eat the lice off farmed salmon between May 2015 and November 2019. The figures, released to environmental groups through Access to Information on the Environment requests, are the first official record of salmon farming’s practices on these wild fish. read full story / add a comment

Call for Covid-19 ‘track and trace’ for rhododendron
Spread of rhododendron ‘death warrant’ for countryside

The spread of rhododendron across Ireland’s countryside has been likened to Covid-19 by an environmental charity, Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE]. FIE have called for a ‘track and trace’ programme to be put in place to control the increasing spread of this ‘beautiful and picturesque death warrant’.

read full story / add a comment

Twelve years after losing their original case against the planning permission for a LNG terminal on the Shannon River, Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] today received a High Court order quashing An Bord Pleanala’s grant of permission and awarding costs in their favour. The proposed terminal was due to process Liquid Natural Gas [LNG] from the USA for consumption in Ireland and to be distributed throughout the EU.

read full story / add a comment

High Court to hear challenge against unsustainable fishing in Ireland and the EU

The Irish High Court granted leave today to the environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] to apply for a Judicial Review aimed at challenging the EU Regulation setting 2020 fishing quotas under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) because of its failure to meet a legally defined deadline of ending overfishing in all stocks by 2020.

read full story / add a comment

UPDATE: The motion was passed despite opposition. See responses below. We believe it is important to keep emailing. Make sure they understand this is serious. The ICCL had to lobby to get a sunset clause added to the first version of this Act. There is no provision that prevents another (or indefinite) extension.

The Dáil is meeting on October 22nd 2020 to pass a motion on the extension of the above mentioned emergency measures until June 9th 2021. They are also voting for more power to enforce these measures through fines and with the help of Garda Síochána.

Many of us are concerned about the proposed extension of extraordinary powers given to the State during the Covid-19 pandemic under the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 and would like to message our TDs about these concerns.

Unfortunately this article should have been published on Oct 20th read full story / add a comment

After running into Paul Cullen, health correspondent at the Irish Times on October 3rd during the protest march from Custom House, we had the pleasure to deepen our conversation by way of the following interview.

These are the questions presented to us:

I think your organisation pre-dates the current pandemic. What led you (and others, presumably) to set it up? Was it because of personal experiences and, if so, could you tell me a bit about these?

Ireland and other countries are currently facing repeated waves of Covid-19 infections. Do you think a vaccine, if developed, can play a role in resolving this problem?

Do you have concerns about the Covid-19 vaccines under development? Are these specific to this vaccine or general to all vaccines?

Are there any vaccines you think are useful? (On your website, you make a series of assertions about vaccines which are almost entirely negative.) Would you consider yourself, or your organisation, anti-vaccine?

What are your concerns about the likely introduction of a Covid-19 vaccine? Do you think it will be made mandatory, or that access to, say, creches or schools etc might be barred to people who are not vaccinated? What action would you take in the event of this happening?

Please tell me a bit about HFI: who set it up? who runs it? who sits on the board/council/organising committee? How is it funded?

read full story / add a comment

Given the expectation that the public must accept what restrictions the State imposes, the basis of these decisions are not the exclusive preserve of experts and advisers or even of elected officials. None of these officials was elected with the prospect of severe restriction of personal liberty in view. Yet this power has been arrogated by these officials on the basis of advice of a dire public health emergency, the predictions of which proved wholly exaggerated. It is insufficient at this stage to claim “emergency.” The emergency has passed. The harm has proved far less than advertised. Deaths are few. Yet “recommendations” are still being promulgated, and severe restrictions are again being proposed. read full story / add a comment

Call on Minister to control private companies as Bord Na Mona quits peat bedding sector

Action comes two years after environmental complaint

Two years after calling on the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, to exercise his powers under the legislation to stop Teagasc, the Farm Advisory Service, and Bord na Mona from promoting the use of deep peat for bedding in animal housing, Bord na Mona has announced that it is exiting the peat bedding market.

The extent of the practice came to light on field trips conducted by Friends of the Irish Environment in the summer of 2018. It coincided with Bord na Mona and Teagasc beginning to market peat as an alternative to straw after the poor harvests led to shortages of straw. The company entered the market in 2017, having reportedly appointed a team to manage sales and grow the market in the wake of reduced use of peat for power generation.

read full story / add a comment

The current debacle in education over Leaving Cert results is a stark example of lack of thought about the fundamentals of human rights. Should high marks in an exam entitle one child to a place in some coveted university course while denying it to another child who has lower marks. Put another way does high intelligence give a student more entitlements. read full story / add a comment

This excellent report the Irish Sentinel exposes another propagandist pushing the Covid-19 narrative and slices through the constant 24 x 7 bullshit propaganda ....

Ciaran O’Connor, writing for the Journal.ie, claims to be a researcher and investigator with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, (propaganda) a London-based think tank that works towards powering solutions to extremism, disinformation, and polarisation. (By lying about them)

read full story / add a comment

Mothers in Ireland are not being provided with the relevant information and support they need during and after childbirth and demand more control in the process, according to new survey data. read full story / add a comment

EU Court scuttles planned fracked gas terminal permission

‘Far reaching’ EU Court ruling on Shannon LNG terminal welcomed

The European Court of Justice has advised the Irish High Court that the 2018 extension by An Bord Pleanála to the 2008 planning permission for the construction of a proposed €500m fracked gas terminal on the south bank of the River Shannon estuary must be considered as a new permit for the purposes of the Habitats Directive and must be subject to a new Assessment under the Habitats Directive.

read full story / add a comment

European Court to rule on Shannon LNG Planning Permission
Court Advised to quash An Bord Pleanala’s consent for Shannon fracked gas terminal

An Bord Pleanála’s extension to the 2008 grant of planning permission for a €500m liquified natural gas terminal on the Shannon Estuary will be the subject of a Reference from the European Court of Justice on Wednesday.

A Preliminary Reference to the European Court was made by Irish High Court Justice Garret Simons on 1 February 2019 after a Judicial Review was brought by Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE].

read full story / add a comment

The country must be in a state of shock now that some sanity in the Covid-19 situation has broken out. The Irish Times of all places has actually published an article with this headline. It is unheard of:

Covid-19: Doctors call for ‘utterly meaningless’ daily figures to be dropped

We have known for some time that many doctors know the whole thing on reporting daily cases (as well as previously locking up the healthy and forcing them to wear masks), for a diseases that about 95% of the time only kills those who are very ill already, is a total farce. However mainly due to watching their backs, careers, being social ostracised or downright cowardice, have been afraid to speak out. Now, at long last the first tentative steps have been taken. Perhaps because they realize the entire medical establishment is rapidly losing all credibility because it has gone along with this farce and most people are obeying the rules just because everyone else does. And this brings us to this historic announcement today:

A number of doctors have called for an end to the daily Covid-19 figures, describing them as a “self-perpetuating cycle of misery”. ..“causing huge anxiety” and is “utterly meaningless”.

read full story / add a comment

Bertie Ahern’s desire ‘to have the power of the Mayor of Shanghai’ is cited in an objection to the proposed fee for objection to forestry applications and appeals in a submission to the Draft Agriculture Appeals (Amendment) Bill 2020. The draft legislation follows on from the 2019 McKenna Report which states that the opportunities that people have to comment and object to forestry proposals represents ‘a barrier to efficient decision-making’ and has ‘created further delays with significant administrative costs’ so the case for a fee is ‘unarguable’. read full story / add a comment

Ireland Has a New Coronavirus Fear: Americans Who Flout Quarantine read full story / add a comment

High Court calls Ireland and the Attorney General into challenge to Legal Aid Board’s refusal to consider aid for environmental charity.

Judge highlight Aarhus Convention’s requirements for access to justice

High Court Justice Niamh Hyland has directed that Ireland and the Attorney General be joined in the proceedings brought by an environmental charity against the Legal Aid Board for its refusal to consider an application for legal aid because the charity was a company and not an individual. read full story / add a comment