Clocks are set to go forward by one hour on Sunday, marking the start of Irish Summer Time or Daylight Saving Time (DST) for another year.
This is despite the European Parliament voting in favour of ending seasonal time changes across all member states in 2019. Changes were due to come in by 2021 before the Covid-19 pandemic hit and plans were shelved.
Brexit also complicated the matter with the Department of Justice previously expressing concerns about having two different time zones on the island of Ireland.
As part of The Conversation from RTÉ's Upfront with Katie Hannon, we asked two people to join our WhatsApp group to debate the merits of daylight savings.
John Fitzgerald is a Research Affiliate at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). He was one of the authors of a paper in 2014 that considered the possible effects on electricity costs of moving Ireland to Central European Time.
Tim Lombard is a Fine Gael Senator for Cork South West. He supports the scrapping of DST.
Tim Lombard: Good afternoon, John. I'm looking forward to the clocks going forward at the weekend and the return of summertime and all the positives that brings.
I hope that this is the last few days of DST ever and we finally see the practice of putting the clocks back every October abolished as voted for by the EU in 2019.
John Fitzgerald: Having the same time as the rest of the UK came late in Ireland. From 1880 till the end of 1916 Dublin Mean Time applied in Ireland, and it was 28 minutes and 21 seconds different from GB.
This was very inconvenient for travellers and even more inconvenient for the British army trying to deal with the Rising.
Hence at the end of 1916 we adopted British time. We have followed it ever since. If you are going to be different from your neighbours it helps if the difference is a round number and is constant over time.
Tim Lombard: Our neighbours across the rest of Europe were very clear in their view during the most successful EU consultation ever with 4.6 million people participating.
An overwhelming majority of participants, 84% in fact, voted to stop the seasonal clock changes with negative health impacts, sleep disruption and inconvenience among the main reasons for ending the twice-yearly time change.
I think it’s fair to say that people appreciate the benefits of longer days & brighter evenings for family, social & leisure activities in the busy world we live in these days.
John Fitzgerald: Originally DST was introduced to save energy in Germany in the First World War. At the time a lot of electricity went on lighting. It caught on elsewhere.
However, lighting is a very small part of energy demand today.
A decade ago, with two colleagues Sara Crowley and Laura Malaguzzi Valeri, we looked at shifting time zones in Ireland so that the Irish electricity peak was different from Great Britain to save on electricity emissions.
However, we found that shifting an hour to continental time or an hour in the other direction would have made little difference.
To make any difference we would have to shift to Greenland Time, an unattractive choice. In any event people would then probably adjust their internal and work clocks to offset the change.
Tim Lombard: The idea of saving energy is a very interesting & topical one. Work & home life have changed dramatically over the past decade.
Professor Aoife Foley from Queens University, Belfast and more importantly a Cork woman so obviously she knows her stuff, spoke about this last October.
She calculated that scrapping the time change last October would flatten the evening peak curves (5-7pm) on energy demand by up to 10% when commercial demand is included.
Professor Foley estimated that Irish people could save over €400 a year in electricity bills if the clocks didn’t go back in October.
Removing the October clock change could result in both energy savings & reduction in bills in addition to the positive lifestyle benefits of brighter evenings.
John Fitzgerald: Flattening a peak in demand requires a change in behaviour. Just changing time zone is most unlikely to change behaviour.
The coordination of transport was what originally drove the institution of national time zones. In GB and Ireland this was in 1880 because train timetables could not hack multiple time zones.
Today that is why Europe changes time on the same day. Airline timetables and trains need this. It is already complicated that the US changes time on different days from Europe.
If we had a different time zone from the north trains between Dublin and Belfast would be disrupted.
At the moment the rush hour suburban rail times are adjusted to fit the Dublin-Belfast timetable. If we were different from the north on time, they would have to readjust their rush hour timetable, or else we would have to.
This is not a reason on its own for not changing but it is a consideration. After all governments have spent a lot of time on protocols to avoid a goods border on the island. Now we might have a time border.
In the (television series) The West Wing, a presidential advisor Josh travels on Air Force One with the president to Indiana.
However, he missed the return flight because he did not know there was a time border within Indiana. He got the time wrong when he went down the road as the zone changed.
Tim Lombard: There’s no doubt that the political situation on this island requires consideration and as with many aspects of life, Brexit has added another complication.
Equally the decision made by an overwhelming majority of people in the EU for very good reasons needs consideration.
The way we live has changed radically since seasonal clocks changes were introduced. The disruption and impact to health and well-being when clocks change is felt by many.
As a farmer and a parent of young children, I see the benefits that brighter evenings bring at home and in my work.
The practice of adjusting the clock twice a year seems out of step with the world we live in today.
John Fitzgerald: In the 1969 general election Garret FitzGerald was running for the first time in Dublin South East.
Addressing a crowd from the back of a lorry in Sandymount he argued that having had a different time from GB while in the UK, as an independent country we should be able to diverge on time from the UK and align more closely to Europe.
He held up a 1910 railway guide to prove his point on how Ireland north and south then had a different time from GB.
The fellow train nerds of Sandymount and the rest of Dublin SE elected FitzGerald with a significant surplus.
However, the incoming FF government were not impressed by his arguments.
In any event the troubles began in Northern Ireland later that year and divergence on time was rendered even more problematic.
Divergence on time is still possible but there are significant negatives as well as positives.
Tim Lombard: For me, the most significant negative is that the seasonal clock change brings winter in overnight and postpones summer for a month every spring. This puts additional pressures on farmers, elderly people and those with mental health difficulties.
More animals are killed on the roads and there is an impact on farmers milking cows. It makes the nights extremely long and lonely for elderly people or those with mental health difficulties. An extra hour of daylight in the evening would be far more beneficial to people.
We live in a different world now and it may be time to accept that the seasonal clock change has outlived its usefulness.
Thanks for the chat, John. It’s been interesting. There’s certainly a lot of history & tradition attached to this issue & much to consider.
For me, the benefits to health, well-being and lifestyle in addition to any energy savings make it worthy of serious consideration.
John Fitzgerald: No right answer. It is interesting that in past debates children walking to school in the dark was a big issue. Unfortunately, so many go by car that it does not seem to have the same importance.
Also, the evidence on energy saving is weak. The issues you raise, Tim are more to the fore today. However, in an interconnected world transport issues are also important.
New issues, maybe new answers?
Read last week's edition of The Conversation, where we asked if we need to rethink how we post about our children online, here.
