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Irish Government to oppose EU plan to end seasonal clock changes

Published 09:09 17 Jul 2019 BST

Rudi Kinsella
Irish Government to oppose EU plan to end seasonal clock changes

Homenews

The matter is set to be discussed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

The Irish Government are expected to oppose an EU plan to end seasonal clock changes. EU member states must inform the European Commission this year if they would like to choose to end the twice-yearly clock changes. Minister for Justice and Equality Charlie Flanagan is expected to ask the Government to reject this proposal on two grounds. The first is a desire to avoid any move that could result in different time zones on the island of Ireland, and the second being that it could lead to a "patchwork" of time zones across the EU. Flanagan believes that the proposal could allow other member states to choose different times, which could cause unnecessary confusion within the Single Market. The minister has reached this conclusion following an extensive consultation that involved Government departments and the public. It found that people would generally favour brighter evenings in winter, but more than 80% of those surveyed would not support any measure that created different time zones on the island.

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Irish Government to oppose EU plan to end seasonal clock changes