Sir, – Paul O’Shea’s letter challenging David Traynor’s suggestion for a high-speed rail spine makes great sense (“A high-speed rail line,” Letters, March 18th). It is unusual for an environmentalist to question public transport proposals and I find this refreshing.
Mr O’Shea notes Ireland’s national grid is under significant and growing pressure. He points to the fact other European countries rely on low-carbon generation and nuclear power to support high-speed rail.
The Irish solution (to the Irish problem?) seems to be to outsource our energy requirements to other countries. As Micheál Martin casually told the Dáil recently, the loss of even one undersea energy connection would close down the country.
Ireland declared a climate emergency in 2019. Since then, our climate actions have been at best glacial and at worst ineffective. We now face an energy emergency which is largely of our own making.
We need to re-evaluate the effectiveness of our climate policy as it has been rolled out to date. For example, is retrofitting achieving the anticipated carbon reductions? Is transport policy working?
Also, we urgently need to address our energy security, prioritising the sustainable generation of electricity using proven technologies, be they nuclear, solar or land-based wind. Relying on the notion Ireland will become the wind and hydrogen capital of Europe (when the technical challenges have not yet been resolved) is not going to address our current problems. The time for this type of magical thinking has passed. – Yours, etc,
JOHN DEATON,
Dundrum,
Dublin 14.