Eirgrid has an important job to ensure our energy needs are met. However this can not be at any cost. The only issue of placing lines underground for Eirgrid is an increase in cost. Surely protecting our beautiful country is worth the increase in cost. It is also important to protect important landmarks, such as the Hill of Tara, which is seeking UNESCO status. It is time to start looking to the future and build the Interconnector and other national projects underground where they will be safe from storms, and keep our country beautiful for the next generations (and tourists).

72% of sampled Irish drinking water is contaminated by microplastics [1]. Fish that we eat have been shown to have consumed plastics [2]. We are eating and drinking tiny fragments of plastic - this has become a human health issue of massive proportions. The Government promised to ban microplastics within a year in 2016, but we are still waiting. [3] Countries all over the world are taking action, and we can too. Richard Bruton, it's time to take decisive action and ban all products containing microplastics! We're asking Richard Bruton to follow the lead of other countries across Europe and put in place a ban on the manufacture and sale of plastic microbeads in this country. They do not biodegrade and persist for a very long time in the environment,[1] https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/our-drinking-water-is-widely-contaminated-with-tiny-bits-of-plastic-36104664.html [2] https://theconversation.com/bait-and-switch-anchovies-eat-plastic-because-it-smells-like-prey-81607 [3] http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/micro-beads-there-will-be-more-waste-plastic-in-the-ocean-than-fish-by-2050-3667684-Oct2017/

Ireland is the EU’s top producer of plastic waste. In 2015, we produced 61kg of plastic per inhabitant (http://jrnl.ie/3786393). Despite what you might think, takeaway cups are neither recyclable nor compostable. This means that approximately 200 million takeaway cups are dumped in landfill or incinerated in Ireland each year (https://consciouscup.ie). Cork City Council just banned single use non-recyclable cups, and council workers are being encouraged to use reusable cups (https://yaycork.ie/2018/01/10/cork-city-council-banned-disposable-coffee-cups/).

We are drowning in plastic and every year we dump millions of non recyclable cups every year. Cork City Council just banned non recyclable cups - why can't Cork County Council!

2 million are going to landfill week and there are cups every where on the site paths and in our parks.

If the incentives are directed towards the large energy utility companies including the ESB, Board Gas, Coilte, Board Na Mona etc and large private companies funded by venture capitalists they will build large scale solar parks mainly in the South and South East of Ireland. This would be good news for Ireland for efforts to meet our 2020 C02 obligations and a renewable future. But there will be no benefits for the majority of the population of Ireland. We will continue to pay the second highest electricity prices in the EU. A grant and a feed in tariff and possibly a generation tariff for the installation of Solar PV on houses, farm buildings and all types of commercial buildings could reduce the annual electricity bills by up to 50% and contribute towards a large reduction on Ireland's dependency on imported fuel bill of €6 billion per year.

Independent experts have warned this reckless dumping of radioactive mud into coastal waters could result in contamination spreading via the sea. [1] Heavily contaminated waste from Sellafield has washed up on seashores in dangerous concentrations - if this dumping isn't stopped, the same could happen again. Big business is trying to push this through - without a full environmental impact study, we have no assurance this toxic waste won't wind up on Irish shores. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/oct/14/hinkley-point-radioactive-mud-dumped-cardiff-severn-estuary

The planning committee have a duty to represent ratepayers and seek to establish if these are unlawful decisions. These decisions may be unlawful if there has been no study of the combined health impacts on the people living in the area. Downwind, and in the six miles between these two developments, lie the homes of tens of thousands of people, as well as recreational water bodies, holiday sites and the shores of Belfast Lough. The human cost of poor air quality is huge causing the deaths of more people per year, in Northern Ireland, than passive smoking or road accidents combined and costing the NHS over £20 billion per year. (1) At a time when the World Health Organisation are saying that the greater Belfast area air already exceeds safe levels by 20% we deserve a cumulative health impact study before any further work proceeds. (2) Read more on FB @Stop the Newtownabbey Pig Factory & Stop Hightown Waste Incinerator 1. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/belfast-air-pollution-levels-among-the-worst-in-uk-35636923.html 2. http://breathelife2030.org/ 3 https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2017/11/13/air-quality-breaches-stops-development-which-threatened-to-exacerbate-them/

Anong many reasons why the residents object are: - The present traffic problem is not due to the roundabout itself, but the backed-up traffic towards town on the Headford Road. - Redesigning the junction does not address this issue at all - €1.2million will be spent - Additional lanes added to four arms of the junction, yet the capacity increase wil be only 15% - Public (and private) green space will be taken - Mature trees felled - Compulsory Purchase will take years to complete - Commercial interests in the area damaged - All local residents will be hugely inconvenienced and in the case of those in the immediate vicinity totally isolated - There will be nine sets of lights in the short stretch from Ballinfoile church to the Courthouse.

RTE is the single most popular media source on this island. We even fund them via a licence fee mandatory for every household. They influence society as a whole & their lagging behind on climate change is beyond unacceptable, it's dangerous. When we are paying up to a billion euro in fines annually because we couldn't meet emissions targets set decades ago, will RTE have Fitzmaurice or Healy Rae on to tell us it's God that controls the weather? Here is a great opinion piece from 2014 on this very issue - http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/columnists/victoria-white/prime-time-and-rte-are-in-denial-of-the-truth-about-climate-change-264064.html Coverage of the horrifically outdated debate RTE held only this year where the topic was basically "is climate change real?" - https://greennews.ie/shocking-climate-change-denial-aired-rte-claire-byrne-live/

It would be an altogether too powerful body and they would have a complete monopoly on pesticides, fertilizers, seeds etc. Monsanto is a producer of genetically modified crops. A merger between these too would spell disaster for farming and farming produce in Ireland.

Ireland will fail to meet our climate target of a 20% emissions reduction by 2020. Even worse - Denis Naughten and our Government are trying to back out of our 2030 promise by pushing for a loophole in the EU climate agreement. [1] Hurricane Ophelia shocked us all showing how much harm a storm like this can cause in such a short space of time. Three people tragically lost their lives. 400,000 homes lost power, schools were forced to shut down, business couldn't open, homes damaged and livelihoods shattered. [2] Unless we make our Government step up on climate change, Hurricane Ophelia is just the beginning. Don't let Ireland drag the whole EU on climate action - let's make the Government stick to their word. [1] https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/ireland-taking-a-shameful-approach-to-emissions-targets-1.3254299 [2] http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/hurricane-ophelia/ophelia-recovery-operation-gale-force-winds-may-disrupt-recovery-efforts-as-tens-of-thousands-still-without-electricity-and-water-36234697.html