Corporate accountability
Sir, – Europe is the fastest-warming continent. Yet instead of stepping up its response to the climate crisis, the EU has quietly passed the so-called “Stop-the-Clock” directive.
This delays the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), meaning thousands of companies will no longer have to report on their carbon footprint, risks, or sustainability efforts for several more years. Even worse, further discussions seek to weaken the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), watering down rules that require companies to check their supply chains for human rights and environmental abuses.
These delays are being sold as “simplification” by the EU. But let’s be clear: this is a rollback. Just when transparency and corporate responsibility are most needed, the EU is giving companies more room to dodge action.
Worryingly, this policy shift is receiving almost no media coverage, despite its far-reaching implications for climate action, corporate accountability and public trust.
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This is not just about doing what’s right. It is about protecting business resilience. Climate change is now widely recognised as one of the greatest risks to economic stability.
This is a fact underscored by the €240 million in insurance claims caused by Storm Éowyn in Ireland alone.
Of course, simplification to ensure EU competitiveness matters. But there’s a big difference between making rules clearer and making them meaningless. Ireland, a country that prides itself on being climate-conscious and business-savvy, should not stay silent.
We must speak out against this quiet retreat from responsibility.
Let’s fix the system, not freeze it. – Yours, etc,
LUKE GIBBONS,
PhD candidate, company law
and climate risks,
Trinity College Dublin.
Ireland’s ties with Canada
Sir, – Stephen Collins, in outlining the Irish ties of Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, mentions the precedent of another Liberal Party leader, Edward Blake, also having Irish heritage (“Mark Carney’s win shows the appeal of a politician who rejects the woke agenda”, Opinion, May 2nd).
In addition, the former Liberal Party leader and prime minister in 1948-1957, Louis St Laurent, had a mother with Irish descent and her surname was Broderick.
Albeit for the Progressive Conservative party, another prominent former prime minister in 1984-1993, the late Brian Mulroney, held strong Irish ties. These came to the fore during his bilateral meeting with then US president Ronald Reagan in 1985, which became known as the “Shamrock Summit” and concluded with the pair leading a rendition of When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.
Canadian politics represents arguably the closest mirror image to the nature of Irish politics anywhere in the world with its similar parliamentary model, typically centrist government priorities and focus on prudent, economic progress. Hopefully, the background factor of Mr Carney’s Irish connection can be availed of to enhance ties and co-operation between Canada and Ireland in the years ahead. – Yours, etc,
Cllr JOHN KENNEDY,
(Fine Gael),
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown
County Council Offices,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
RTÉ’s spending fiasco
Sir, – RTÉ has told the Minister for Arts and Media, Patrick O’Donovan, that it wrote off ¤3.6 million on an IT project that went wrong (“RTÉ confirms €3.6m write down on partly abandoned IT project”, News, April 30th).
RTÉ have said this new IT system was designed to replace old finance and HR structures and was partly funded by the sale of land on its campus. I find it incredulous to hear that RTÉ is again in the news for all the wrong reasons.
I am bewildered how this entity wrote off €3.6 million of taxpayers’ money on this project? One would like to know what range of measures have RTÉ now put in place to ensure this fiasco won’t happen again?
It leaves me wondering how private sector broadcasters and newspapers must be feeling when they continually witness RTÉ displaying such profligacy while simultaneously being bailed out by the State? – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’BRIEN,
Clonmel,
Co Tipperary.
First 100 days of Government
A chara, – Recently, there has been much critical commentary of the first 100 days of Donald’s Trump US presidency, but let’s face it, the first 100 days of our own Government leave a lot to be desired. It took an age to form a Government, which then shot itself in the foot over speaking rights, took off around the globe in March and now wants to appoint a “housing tsar” on a salary that would make a real tsar blush. – Is mise,
JOHN KELLY,
Bennekerry,
Co Carlow.
Access to the countryside
Sir, – Keep Ireland Open, which campaigns for legally protected access to the countryside for walkers and other recreational users, welcomes the article by Diarmaid Ferriter (“In Ireland, we are obsessed with the land – owning it, not roaming it”, Opinion, May 2nd) .
It is time the Oireachtas addressed this matter with appropriate legislation. Keep Ireland Open has compiled a long list of places where access has been blocked. Two that stand out are the Cliffs of Moher pathways and the Bray to Greystones cliff walk, which have been enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people annually. There are many more places where access has been blocked and people have been deprived of what should be their right to enjoy the Irish countryside.
It’s time we, the public, insisted this issue be addressed by legislation. That’s how progress was made on our neighbouring island, while good access for walkers is also a feature of European mainland countries.
Responsible access has so many benefits for people’s physical and mental health, it is also good for tourism and the rural economy. When are we going to wake up to this? – Yours, etc,
ROBERT DOWDS,
Chairman,
Keep Ireland Open.
Clondalkin,
Dublin.
Shingles and neuralgia
Sir, – Joanna Mulvey has highlighted the necessity to make shingles vaccinations free or accessible at a reasonable price (Letters, May 1st). Recent articles and letters have also described the pain and suffering shingles can cause.
There is another issue, however, that needs highlighting and that is the risk, which increases as you grow older, of developing post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), which causes a burning pain in nerves and skin. I got shingles in November and developed PHN, which is still with me six months later, despite having taken the required medication. I am pleased to say that my experience has motivated a number of family and friends to get vaccinated against shingles. But the cost of ¤450-¤500 is a barrier too high for many people. The time has come to make the shingles vaccination free. – Yours, etc,
C CARROLL,
Cabra,
Dublin.
Popularity of SUVs
Sir, – I agree with the views expressed by Dr Ola Lokken Nordrum on SUVs (Letters, May 1st). The rise of the SUV reveals a troubling legacy of regulatory cynicism and corporate opportunism.
The SUV’s popularity is the result of a loophole in US fuel economy regulations dating to the 1970s. After the oil crisis, the US introduced fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars. However, so-called “light trucks”– a category that included pickups and vans – were granted more lenient rules. Vehicle manufacturers soon realised that if they built large passenger vehicles on truck platforms, they could sidestep the tighter regulations.
Thus, the modern SUV was born – not as a response to consumer need but as a way to sell oversized, heavily polluting vehicles. Decades later, the consequences are still with us. SUVs emit far more CO2 than smaller cars. They have become one of the leading contributors to the rise in global transport emissions. They are also significantly more dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists. Yet they continue to be marketed as lifestyle essentials, often in urban environments where they are least needed and most harmful. – Yours, etc,
PAUL O’SHEA,
Shankill,
Dublin 18.
Cliche of the ‘woke agenda’
Sir, – Stephen Collins leans heavily on the tired, though ill-defined cliche of the “woke agenda” to explain the Canadian prime minister’s victory in the recent election (“Mark Carney’s win shows the appeal of a politician who rejects the woke agenda”, Opinion, May 2nd).
“Woke” now seems to function as the contemporary stand-in for the equally worn-out bogeyman of “political correctness”, a term used more to signal vague cultural resentment than to critique any coherent set of policies.
Mr Collins refers to “progressive pieties” that have allegedly discredited liberal elites “in the eyes of so many voters”. But he offers no clarity on what these are. Which policies does he believe caused the damage? Marriage equality? Climate action? Antiracism initiatives? The charge remains frustratingly vague.
To be fair, he does cite Mr Carney’s decision to ditch carbon tax as a move back towards the centre.
His portrayal of Kamala Harris’s defeat to Donald Trump is no more grounded. The idea that she lost partly because of alignment with the progressive wing of her party is laughable. She ran from the centre-right of her party, emphasising support for gun rights, a tough-on-crime record, clamping down on immigration and strong backing for Israel. If that amounts to a “woke agenda”, the phrase is even more ill-defined.
Mr Collins is on firmer ground when he attributes Mr Carney’s success to the fact that Mr Trump effectively appeared on the ballot, too. Mr Trump’s belligerence gave Mr Carney a rallying cause and unified Canadian voters around a stabilising alternative. That, not any popular backlash against supposed progressive overreach, was the decisive factor. – Yours, etc,
SÉAMUS WHITE,
Stoneybatter,
Dublin 7.
Voting in the papal election
Sir, – As a Catholic (small c variety), I think it’s a pity that voting in the papal election isn’t open to the general membership of the church and run like an Irish political election.
If it were, we’d have the razzmatazz of election promises, social media campaigns, leaflets in the letter box, posters on lamp-posts, and candidates on the TV being put through their paces. We’d have early exit polls, late exit polls, the opening of the ballot boxes, tallies, the breakdown of votes per parish constituency (I’d hire CNN’s John King and his magic wall for this), quotas, eliminations, transfers, the jubilant winner being carried shoulder-high (in this instance, around St Peter’s Basilica), and cups of tea and sandwiches for the volunteer canvassers.
Instead of all this excitement, inclusivity and transparency, we have men behind closed doors, white smoke and the feeling of being kept in the dark.
By the way, if I had a vote, I’d give my number one to a woman and my number two to the Ralph Fiennes character in Conclave. I live in hope. – Yours, etc,
CHRIS FITZPATRICK,
Dublin 6.
More trivial politics?
Sir, – Tánaiste Simon Harris says the Netflix series Adolescence should be “compulsory viewing” in secondary schools. Taoiseach Micheál Martin says Kneecap must “urgently clarify” their stance on Hizbullah. Can the Cabinet next issue a statement on whether Mickey Rourke’s expulsion from the Big Brother house was justified?
Alternatively, they could concentrate on the jobs they were elected to do. – Yours, etc,
AIDAN HARTE,
Naas,
Co Kildare.
Highs of Roscommon
Sir, – While I don’t want to detract from Mairead Cashman’s obvious joy on hearing the cuckoo as expressed in her letter (May 1st), I have to point out that Fairymount is not the highest point in Roscommon. This honour falls to Seltannasaggart, much further north than Fairymount. – Yours, etc,
BRÍD MILLER,
Co Roscommon.
William Blake’s Irish roots
Sir, – I write with regard to the proposed Irishness of poet William Blake (“Was William Blake, one of England’s greatest poets, actually Irish?”, Books, April 30th).
In the mid 1950s a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Elizabeth O’Higgins, published articles in the Dublin Magazine attesting to her belief that a linguistic examination of Blake’s poetry would suggest that he was fully fluent in the Irish language.
Ms O’Higgins’s research notes were recently donated to the university library. – Yours, etc,
JANE MAXWELL,
Tullamore,
Co Offaly.
Confused cuckoos
Sir, – Does it really matter when the cuckoo has been first heard or by whom or where? In a distant past it may have signalled an end to winter and a promise of longer days and better weather. Now, with inconsistent climate patterns, a confused cuckoo is likely to turn up anywhere at any time. – Yours, etc,
AIDAN BOYLE,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
