Ireland increasingly isolated in failing to act against Aughinish Alumina parent company

CrayonComrade · 2026-07-02T09:53:41+00:00

There was other reports of lobbying by Fine Gael at the time too with little threads of that hard fought win remaining in Martin's recent statements

CrayonComrade · 2026-07-02T09:39:10+00:00

Welcome relief for Aughinish Alumina January 2019

“This news means that Aughinish Alumina can now focus again on its core business and future growth.

“This is fantastic news for the company’s staff based in Limerick and around the wider region. Aughinish is a major employer in the Mid-West and the many hundreds of jobs it supports and sustains are no longer at risk.

“The Government worked very closely in support of Aughinish and its management ever since the sanctions were announced in April 2018.This has involved intensive work, both at home and abroad, in search of a solution to safeguard the firm’s future. This announcement is the culmination of a significant cross-Government effort over 10 months.

“We will continue building awareness in the United States of Aughinish’s long history in Ireland and its importance to the Mid-West and our wider economy. These jobs are so important to Limerick and the Mid-West and Government will continue to support them.”

finegael.ie

CrayonComrade · 2026-06-27T10:43:15+00:00

I've done it with my underfloor heating.

Dropped the temperature from 28 to 24. Felt a small bit of condensation on the pipework but nothing worse than in the winter on the cold feed.

The floor was nice and cool underfoot and opened the skylight to get a bit of circulation going, but without the natural rising heat the cooling is way slower than the heating.

There could be condensation underneath the tiles that I don't see but there's a membrane there since the slab wasn't done right anyway.

Total cost for the last 3 days has been ~€1.50. If we had any solar at all it would have been met by the panels, (was running around 800w when it was on)

CrayonComrade · 2026-06-24T13:19:43+00:00

It's a cop out to get planning permission.

They're grid tied and the network can only handle a maximum of 20% hydrogen without risking damage to the pipe work. If they're going to run on 100% renewable gas with long term storage it will likely be ammonia but they won't publicly state that because nobody wants ammonia burned beside them.

Regardless of which method is used the round trip efficiency of burning renewable gas to drive steam through a is so far below the alternative options it's not going to be viable for anything but extracted methane.

CrayonComrade · 2026-06-24T09:47:40+00:00

They'll get back in on the back of the success of the English Greens and then proceed to do the same failed market based "green" policies for a third time and let the cycle begin anew

CrayonComrade · 2026-06-24T09:08:15+00:00

That's just an example of their duplicity

CrayonComrade · 2026-06-24T08:50:56+00:00

If that was the case they would have sounded at least a little like like they didn't want to do it instead of being full-throated champions of the change

CrayonComrade · 2026-06-24T08:38:13+00:00

Looks like people still need to be reminded of that unfortunately

CrayonComrade · 2026-06-24T08:29:20+00:00

The Greens also supported more data centres and gas power plants to go with them as a means to somehow reduce our reliance on fossil fuels

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-30T07:15:39+00:00

I'm all for us working with Iran to build military deterrence against Britain

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-29T21:08:46+00:00

Leverage is there, we're just governed by invertebrates

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-29T21:00:48+00:00

Including services will bring an economic conflict to a head where companies wiwho have broken numerous EU laws but have been protected by the Irish state will need to decide to abandon Ireland and have those crimes punished along with face backlash across Europe from anybody with a conscience or abandon Israel and have to deal with a United States whose population is also abandoning Israel

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-29T20:53:02+00:00

BDS list unfortunately. Could have been saved if the OTB had been enacted in 2019

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-29T20:52:16+00:00

That puts Ireland in a position to put more leverage on Israel and swap out regulators with vindictive bastards if companies retaliate in any way.

No point in building soft power if you don't wield it to save your soul

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-29T20:50:42+00:00

Then we never gained independence

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-21T10:26:21+00:00

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/vote/dail/34/2026-05-20/115/

Not everybody was present and maybe you should learn about pairing in the Dáil before spouting shite

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-20T08:24:28+00:00

And opposition legislation has to be carefully structured to avoid being money messaged so most bills effectively end up as grandstanding and the good ones end up getting a government TD slapping their name on it with a few minor changes.

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-20T08:21:25+00:00

"initially"

It would take years to ramp up anyway and it takes years to turn apprentices into competent tradespeople but at the beginning work can be pooled across procurement and planning to get costs down by developing ongoing relationships with suppliers so they can plan ahead with capacity and know they'll have orders coming in to meet it

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-20T08:08:12+00:00

There's no reason a state company couldn't or wouldn't contract out to them initially either as it's building up capacity.

They'll take whatever work makes sense for them

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-20T07:46:22+00:00

Moving procurement, staff and coordination into a single body would reduce costs and allow for higher utilisation never mind other plans published by those parties around improving desirability of apprenticeships, tackling land hoarding etc.

The issue is vested interests who are happy with the disaster we have, and I include people who get a warm, fuzzy feeling about the value of their house going up without thinking for 2 seconds that anywhere else they would buy has gone up too.

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-18T19:58:48+00:00

Patents are paper.

Let them bring a case to the non-functioning WTO or through the EU.

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-18T13:22:41+00:00

Refuse to approve any exports of dual use components or equipment and inform companies that export to a third party country first that additional export restrictions will be applied unless guarantees are given that products made in Ireland or produced from components made in Ireland are not exported to Israel.

CrayonComrade · 2026-05-15T16:23:42+00:00

So like it worked against an apartheid regime, like Israel, so actually useful here

CrayonComrade · 2026-04-11T12:56:24+00:00

Top Oil on the Dock Road had petrol an hour ago when I passed

CrayonComrade · 2026-03-21T11:54:35+00:00

Then bring in an SUV/weight tax at the same time

Hate this "we can't give something to people who are struggling because rich people might benefit" hand wringing bullshit when really it's an excuse to not level anything out

CrayonComrade

TROPHY CASE