“And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew
That one small head could carry all he knew”
- Oliver Goldsmith, ‘The Deserted Village’
Ireland owes a debt to Micheál Martin. In 2004 he introduced a smoking ban: the South was one of the first states to bring in this ban, and by now it must have saved thousands of lives, from passive smokers to active smokers, at home and abroad. So take a bow, Micheál – you were smart to spot the dangers of smoking in public and courageous to carry the banning bill into law.
But that was more than twenty years ago. Are those noble thoughts of a smoke-free South still lodged in Micheál’s head? It doesn’t seem likely. That, or he has a head so big, it can contain noble thoughts alongside nutty and highly dangerous ones.
Here’s Micheál talking about energy and the need to tap all sensible sources:
“We certainly should look and examine seriously options like nuclear power, simply examine the advances in technology that have occurred”.
Fianna Fáil TD James O’Connor recently tabled legislation that would end a ban on developing nuclear power in the State, and that will be debated by the Dáil in the coming months.
Has anyone talked to Micheál, to the bould James, about what nuclear energy involves? It leaves ‘nuclear waste’ – sort of like the ashes of a fire, except that nuclear waste hangs around and is deadly.
if it’s low-level waste, it hangs about and is deadly danagerous for somewhere between a few years and 100 years. And while you’re digesting that, better hope Micheál and James aren’t going to set up nuclear plants that will produce high-level waste, because if they are, the South will be left with spent nuclear fuel/nuclear waste which will last for at least 1,000 years. And if we’re talking about Plutonium 238 you’re talking 24,000 years, and if you’re talking about uranium 235 you’re talking 700 million years. Honest, check for yourself. Then send a clear speaker to have a word with An Taoiseach. Urge him to push out any thought of nuclear energy. There’s not much good in being saved from tobacco fumes only to find yourself and your descendants sitting on a killer you can’t kill.
Deserted Village? Deserted Planet.
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