Category Archives: Environmental Pillar

Thanks for the clarity Tommy!

May 10th was the final climate conversation and was hosted in the Abbey theatre, Dublin. I was on after Tommy Tiernan, representing the Environmental Pillar and I didn’t really know what to expect. How was he going to marry comedy with climate change? The whole event is available on YouTube linked here. I was pleasantlyContinue reading “Thanks for the clarity Tommy!”

Meeting Minister White – April 2015

My proposal is to host a national conversation akin to the ideal community conversation by bringing representatives of all of the national bodies of organisations with branches throughout the country to a workshop together and encourage them to replicate the workshop in communities all around the country.

I emphasised the importance of having the farming community at the table. The fact is that if farmers need to keep their methane emissions high sacrifices will have to made elsewhere and that will take a collaborative approach. It may be that a local anaerobic digester will cut out fossil fuel heating for some area of their town bringing the communities collective emissions down.

Empowering the Disempowered

I left my children on Monday November 3rd before heading to Dublin. When I eventually left Dublin Wednesday morning I drove home with tears streaming down my face. I cried for about two hours. It reminded me of that day in February 2013 when I started writing in rhyme following a realisation that just leftContinue reading “Empowering the Disempowered”

Two very different sides to Planning for Energy Infrastructure

On October 21st I attended two very different seminars on the same issue in the same room. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. One cost €190 or so to attend and the other was free. One was positive and upbeat while the other was oozing negativity and mistrust. The earlier of theContinue reading “Two very different sides to Planning for Energy Infrastructure”

National Energy Policy – Next Phase

Last Wednesday September 24th I attended the launch of the next phase of the National Energy Policy. This was my first event with Alex White, the new Minister at the Department of Communication, Energy and Natural Resources, DCENR. My impression was very positive and I feel he is intent on ensuring this policy can work.Continue reading “National Energy Policy – Next Phase”

Summer’s nearly over – back to work!

Summer’s nearly over – back to work! It’s been almost two months since school finished up for summer. As sure as school closes down for summer so too does Leinster House. Before the summer break we had a cabinet reshuffle so I expect newly appointed Ministers will have spent some time getting acquainted with theirContinue reading “Summer’s nearly over – back to work!”

Back to Basics – Relationships

Over the past year I have been studying our national energy conversation. Having been absorbed in awareness raising and communicating the challenges for the previous 6 years I realised that the time for some real talking was upon us – at last! People were waking up 🙂 It started when we hosted the People’s EnergyContinue reading “Back to Basics – Relationships”

How fast things can move

We are now into the final stretch with the Energy Green Paper Process and some submissions or ideas for text are going up on People’s Energy Charter website. Please do take a look, post your ideas and feel free to start a conversation about Ireland’s energy on the forum page. You will need to logContinue reading “How fast things can move”

Welcoming the debate and stakeholder engagement

This week I attended the Energy Ireland conference. Predictably my agenda was public participation. Almost as predictable is the fact that social or “public acceptance” in energy plans, policies and projects was a big issue throughout the two days with one afternoon workshop being dedicated to “stakeholder engagement”. It got off to a great start when aContinue reading “Welcoming the debate and stakeholder engagement”