Greens are so out of touch with how rural Ireland thinks

THE little Green monster in the Government is starting to get on my nerves.

Their ideas to reduce carbon emissions and save the planet are wonderful but at every corner and every turn they go the wrong way about it and annoy ordinary people.

The fact that most of them live in urban areas is extremely unhelpful and the truth is they haven’t a clue about life in rural Ireland.

No one cares more about the countryside more than the farmers and the people who live there.

They also know what they are talking about.

There is nothing more pleasurable in life than walking on a country boreen or across the meadows on a summer’s day and watching mother nature with all her breath-taking wildlife in full bloom.

The sense of joy when you wake up in the morning and go outside and listen to the dawn chorus without the sound of a car, bus or train to spoil the moment.

We know what the word green is all about, we love our environment and of course we want to protect it.

We also love all the animals we share the countrywide with doing our best to help them survive especially through the winter.

But trying to make a living as a farmer is difficult. Living in rural Ireland is also increasingly expensive.

If you have children, for instance, you need two cars because there is little or no public transport, and whatever buses or trains there are, they are always a couple of miles away and the service unreliable and inadequate.

Yes most people in rural Ireland have bicycles but they don’t cycle around in lycra gear, hogging the road in groups of eight and breaking every rule of the road in the process.

They’ll cycle over to a neighbour’s house on a message or to the village shop to get a loaf of bread or milk or to the GAA club for training.

People might dislike Michael Healy-rae or think he is a bit of a fool because he wears a cap.

But he is one of the cleverest politicians in Leinster House and eight out of 10 times knows what he is talking about when it comes to rural Ireland.

He is absolutely right when he says the Greens make a hames of everything they try to do in Government and rub country people up the wrong way.

Environment Minister Eamon Ryan, a nice fella by all accounts, keeps putting his foot in it.

The whole turf cutting saga is a classic example when the Greens tried to stop people selling it to their family, neighbours and friends causing an absolute rural uproar and have now backed down.

It is also stupid bringing in carbon taxes at a time when energy costs are going through the roof because of the war in Ukraine. The sensible thing is to postpone the increases for a year to give struggling families financial breathing space. And if they really want people to leave their cars at home and use public transport especially in the towns and cities, then make it free for everyone and pump billions in, to increase services.

No one would argue against their policies for wind and solar energy.

But why are we so slow getting the wind farms off the Atlantic coast up and running? We get so much wind we should be energy efficient in no time.

But it is other irritating decisions like the Office of Public Works – under instructions from the Greens – clamping down on car parking around the Zoo in the Phoenix Park that drives people insane.

If you live in the capital you can easily get public transport to the Zoo.

However, if you are coming from the country for the day with your children like I did as a child once a year, you have no choice but to come by car because you couldn’t afford to go otherwise.

People should have the option of both. There is plenty of room in the park for carparking – just look at the numbers accommodated during Bloom.

Other Green nonsense like telling you to grow lettuce in your window box or reduce the amount of time in showers just shows how they treat us all with contempt and speak to us like children.

We in rural Ireland know what we are talking about when it comes to protecting the environment.

We don’t need lectures. What a shame the out-of-touch Greens don’t listen to us.

And finally to the cycling fraternity, especially in Dublin, would you ever learn the rules of the road and stop flying through red lights. You are breaking the law.

If they want people to use buses and trains make them free