Sunday, February 10, 2008
Unite Against Climate Change
The news that a quarter of car divers who died in 2006 were NOT wearing seat belts is incredulous. I raised the matter in the Senate, and asked for better enforcement to be taken by the Gardai.
The law exists to prosecute people who don't wear seat belts. I did an arbitrary, random survey from the side of the road the other night and sure enough about a quarter of drivers weren't wearing their seatbelts.
Who are these muppets and what does it take to get through to them? The fact that they seem unafraid of any legal action from the Gardai indicates to me that enforcement of the matter is poor. But then, you just have to look at the amount of trucks overtaking in the Motorway fast lane (illegal), the amount of L-plates on the Motorways (illegal) to see that the Gardai are obviously very busy doing something else, somewhere else, to bother with mere matters of traffic enforcement. Would this happen in another country? I don't think so!
I spoke about the success of the brown bin experiment in Fingal during the week. The Senate was debating Waste Management issues. I called for a roll-out of brown bins across the North East, to try and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill sites.
The Labour Party organised a Conference in the Mansion House on Saturday about Climate Change. Sean Sherlock, our Spokerperson on Agriculture had a long-standing engagement elsewhere so he asked me to attend and to speak about Agriculture and Climate Change.
The Conference is part of our campaign to get government to provide leadership on this issue. We believe that a concerted approach is needed between Agriculture, planning, energy policy and transport policy and our Spokespeople on these portfolios all attended and spoke at the Conference.
Tommy Broughan speaks about Transport and Climate Change. Joanna Tuffy TD is in the foreground.
The Conference was fairly well-attended, considering it clashed with the Labour Youth Conference on the Lisbon Treaty (which voted to support the Treaty!). I called for more research into emissions, a review of the incentives for afforestation schemes and for further thought to be given to the use of bio-fuels.
The law exists to prosecute people who don't wear seat belts. I did an arbitrary, random survey from the side of the road the other night and sure enough about a quarter of drivers weren't wearing their seatbelts.
Who are these muppets and what does it take to get through to them? The fact that they seem unafraid of any legal action from the Gardai indicates to me that enforcement of the matter is poor. But then, you just have to look at the amount of trucks overtaking in the Motorway fast lane (illegal), the amount of L-plates on the Motorways (illegal) to see that the Gardai are obviously very busy doing something else, somewhere else, to bother with mere matters of traffic enforcement. Would this happen in another country? I don't think so!
I spoke about the success of the brown bin experiment in Fingal during the week. The Senate was debating Waste Management issues. I called for a roll-out of brown bins across the North East, to try and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill sites.
The Labour Party organised a Conference in the Mansion House on Saturday about Climate Change. Sean Sherlock, our Spokerperson on Agriculture had a long-standing engagement elsewhere so he asked me to attend and to speak about Agriculture and Climate Change.
The Conference is part of our campaign to get government to provide leadership on this issue. We believe that a concerted approach is needed between Agriculture, planning, energy policy and transport policy and our Spokespeople on these portfolios all attended and spoke at the Conference.
Tommy Broughan speaks about Transport and Climate Change. Joanna Tuffy TD is in the foreground.
The Conference was fairly well-attended, considering it clashed with the Labour Youth Conference on the Lisbon Treaty (which voted to support the Treaty!). I called for more research into emissions, a review of the incentives for afforestation schemes and for further thought to be given to the use of bio-fuels.
# posted by Senator Dominic Hannigan @ 2:49 PM 
