As the clocks go forward and summertime begins, is the time-up for seasonal clock changes?
The start of Irish summer time or Daylight Saving Time (DST) starts when the clocks go forward by one hour at the end of March. For Kevin Chellar, proprietor of Timepiece Antique Clocks on St Patrick's Street in Dublin, this means adjusting more than 200 clocks.
However, the twice-yearly time changes, forward one hour at the end of March and one hour backward at the end of October could be coming to an end. The European Parliament voted to scrap the practice of the seasonal time change by 2021.
The original arguments for seasonal clock changes were largely to do with energy conservation. Many people believe the practice is now redundant. Others believe the hour change has negative health impacts
Sleep consultant Lucy Wolfe explains that seasonal time changes can cause disrupted sleep patterns and leave people getting less sleep,
In general, it affects children more.
If the seasonal time changes are to be scrapped, then a decision must be made on whether this is a permanent wintertime or summer,
It’s a choice of brighter evenings or brighter mornings.
Under the clock at Clerys on O’Connell Street, Dublin members of the public have mixed opinions on which option is better.
Brighter mornings would suit a woman who leaves for work at 7 am. Another woman would prefer brighter evenings as it would give her more opportunities to do things. A man does not mind dark mornings and
Now that we’re retired it’s even less of a problem, we can just stay in bed a bit longer.
Brexit could also complicate matters as potentially there could be two different time zones on the island of Ireland.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 29 March 2019. The reporter is Conor Hunt.
