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Thursday’s evening programme ‘The Great Outdoors’ with Breandan O’Scannaill. Broadcast Thursday the 9th Of January 2025 https://www.connemarafm.com/audio-page/
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Thursday’s evening programme ‘The Great Outdoors’ with Breandan O’Scannaill. Broadcast Thursday the 9th Of January 2025 https://www.connemarafm.com/audio-page/
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Thursday’s evening programme ‘The Great Outdoors’ with Breandan O’Scannaill. Broadcast Thursday the 9th Of January 2025 https://www.connemarafm.com/audio-page/
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The Mayo International Dark Skies Park, based in Wild Nephin National Park, has won the International Place of the Year award for its work in raising awareness of light pollution. The park, accredited as an international dark sky place in 2016, has been engaging with local communities and hosting events to highlight the importance of reducing light pollution. The park advocates for using softer, less glary lighting and directing light only where necessary. They are working with lighting specialists, local authorities, and community groups to develop policies and encourage the use of dark sky-friendly lights. Light pollution has negative effects on wildlife, disrupting their natural behaviors and rhythms. The park aims to strike a balance between providing adequate lighting for safety and reducing unnecessary light emissions. This program is sponsored by Forum Connemara's social inclusion program, SCICAP, which supports individuals, community groups, and social enterprises across Connemara. Contact us today to see how we can help you at 095-4116 or see forumconnemara.ie. Thanks to Mitch there for his lovely program as always, and you're very welcome to the Great Outdoors here tonight with me, Brendan O'Scannell. I hope you will stay with me. We have a very full program as usual. Shortly I will speak with Georgia MacMillan, who is a development officer with the Mayo International Dark Skies Park. It's about an award that they won. We'll also have Kevin Crowley, angling advisor in Land Fisheries Ireland, talking about clubs and associations are asked to get involved and looking for funding etc. before the 24th of January. Dr. Simon Moody from UCD is going to talk to us about a project they're working on to do with septic tanks. Linda Porter, Galway Women's Midi Marathonist, will be talking to us about what's happening there. And then we'll have Anna Lardy, CEO of Music for Galway, giving us information on the 32nd Midwinter Festival which takes place on the 17th to the 19th of January. And then the last part of our program will be classical music as usual. But we are going to just take our Eco Sloth jingle and then we'll hopefully be speaking with Georgia after that. The Eco Sloth on Connemara Community Radio. A weekly program focusing on environmental and climate sustainability. This program is co-funded by Commissioner Lamond through the Sound and Vision team. As I say, on our Eco Sloth this evening, we're going to be looking at an award which the Mayo International Dark Skies Park just received. And to tell us more about this, I'm delighted to welcome Georgia Macmillan, whose development officer there with the Mayo International Dark Skies Park. Georgia, you're very welcome to again here on Connemara Community Radio. Thanks for having me, Grendel. No problem at all. Before we get on to this award itself, just tell us a little bit about the Mayo International Dark Skies Park. I know we've talked about it before, but give me some background to it. Yeah, we're based at Wild Nathan National Park, which is one of Ireland's now eight national parks managed by National Parks and Wildlife. And we say half the park is after dark. So after that, Wild Nathan National Park becomes Mayo Dark Skies Park. And it was accredited as an international dark sky place in 2016 with a gold tier for its quality of night skies by the organization Dark Skies International, who are based in Tucson in Arizona. Okay, so it's been on the go for a while, but it really has grown over the last few years. And I suppose you've been constantly developing other aspects to it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, really, I suppose one of the big learnings we had with the Dark Skies Park is that the award was only the start of the journey. So we've been really busy in the last eight years engaging. It's very much a community collaboration. So the national park and the local communities in Newport, in Mulroney and in Valley Croy work together on initiatives like things like the Mayo Dark Sky Festival that we host annually, which just last year, we've just done a count on our numbers finally. So we just reached out over the 1,000 attendees, which is fantastic for a November event in the West. And we work with Dark Sky Ireland to look at initiatives to create policy for light pollution. And, yeah, lots of different events, initiatives and engagement work over the last number of years. So this award that you received, tell me about this. How did it come about or what exactly is it for? Yeah, so Dark Sky International, they're the accrediting body. So we have to submit reports each year on the work that we've done and it's reviewed. And they have a number of different awards they allocate. So International Place of the Year is really, we're thrilled with it because there are now about 230 Dark Sky places around the world. So it's a global award and they've highlighted our work on globally raising awareness of light pollution. So I suppose not only in Ireland, but we also attended one of the EU light pollution conferences in the Czech Republic in the last year and the last 2022, two years. And we've also worked on the strategic planning with Dark Sky Ireland for a national network in Ireland. And obviously our main events, such as the Dark Sky Festival that I mentioned earlier, things like International Dark Sky Week and the engagement that we've had with local communities on lighting projects. I hope that whole idea of the lighting project I find fascinating because we're all probably very aware of all of the amount of lights that people are putting around their towns, around their houses, around their premises. It seems to be growing more year on year. Yes, I suppose there are ways of doing it that will not cause as much light pollution. Yeah, and we have to, I suppose, just remind people what we're lighting for. So it is very easy to say, oh, it's for safety. But quite often when we over light, we create really white light areas and contained areas that also create very dark shadows. So we're not always making it as safe as we think we are by throwing lots of light. And also there's the natural world to think about, as well as our own wellbeing. So we need to wind down in the evening and get some rest if we constantly have white, particularly white light from LEDs that typically, when they're very energy efficient, they tend to use the bluer end of the lighting spectrum. So they're whiter. So we're kind of advocating for a light that is a little less glary, a little less white and is in a more of a softer area of the spectrum. And also to, of course, make sure you only use light when you need it and direct it to the area that you need to use it in. Now I know in a lot of European countries, I've been to different places where they don't actually do it off of the street lighting at all. In fact, sometimes you go to smaller towns in France and maybe Italy and you'll actually find no lights, practically no lights. I presume this is something that we need to work towards, but at the same time we need to be careful that it doesn't become too dark. Yeah, I mean, we're absolutely not saying no light. We need cast lighting at night and we need, you know, for social activities and economic reasons. But we don't perhaps need as much light. And we're one of the few countries that lights, all of our street lights are on all night, every night, which is a massive amount not only of light but also of energy. And quite often, you mentioned France there. I mean, France would be one of the, I suppose, most proactive in terms of light pollution mitigation measures through legislation. Now we might not want to go as far as they are, but we certainly need to cut some of the light emissions. We have no policy at the moment. So we're working to recognise that and see where we need it and where we can implement it so that we still have enough light at night and that we don't use too much of it. We don't fire it up into the sky where it's unnecessary. And also just to rethink when we're looking at light at night over towns and villages to perhaps rethink, you know, what's attractive. We're very drawn to light in our language and in our social sense when we talk about light. But it's not always, you know, quite often it's when we look at the urban glow of light pollution, it is a pollutant and it's not necessarily something to be admired. So quite often, you know, photovoltaics is a lot of light. It's really looking at something that is effectively a pollutant to the natural environment. So we're just trying to rethink how we associate light and whether it's always a positive. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't necessarily. And I presume for something like this you need to work with a lot of different agencies between county councils, city councils, whatever it might be, plus local people. But also I presume experts to show you the best way to use light because, I mean, as you say, if it's used properly it's wonderful but it's just overused probably. Yeah, I mean, we work with lighting specialists. We work with our local authority. We're quite lucky here in Mayo that Mayo County Council are very proactive and they're investigating putting together a light pollution policy at the moment for the county. So we work with different groups, both environmental groups and community groups such as tidy towns to make sure everybody's, I suppose, just doing their best. And one of the big challenges we find for communities at the moment is that buying the lights, the retailers are not necessarily stocking the most dark sky friendly lights that we would advocate for. So that's a challenge for us to work with perhaps the industry to supply the lights that we need to use rather than the bright white ones. Yeah, because obviously people are going into a shop or whatever buying lights of some description and not really working on all of that. You mentioned there the wildlife and the effect on nature because I know this was something I talked about a couple of, last year with some people. The whole idea that you'll find birds now singing, twittering outside big supermarkets with all these lights on. It really must affect all of the wildlife very badly, the amount of light pollution that is there. It does. There is a lot of research backing that up that light pollution is no longer an emerging environmental threat, it is an environmental stressor. And yes, you mentioned birds and that's a common issue that is mentioned in our community events, that birds are singing right through the night because they think it's dawn chorus in the middle of the night because it's so bright. So there's the obvious such as bats and other nocturnal species, but there's also other diurnal species that just need to sleep at night or avoid being hunted or avoid predation. So it's interfering with the natural cycle of events if we have 24 hours of daylight. And as I said, you know, ourselves as well, we need to sleep when it's dark too. Yes, it's very important. Now I see here as well, I think that you're partaking part of this conference in Westport, is that right? The Allen Conference? Yes, it's something we had to bid for. It's an international conference that happens every two years. So the previous one was in Calgary in Canada and we are delighted to bring it to Ireland late October, so the 28th to the 30th of October. And we'll be hosting scientists and researchers from pretty much all over the world to discuss their research and present the results and hopefully discuss with policymakers so that we can share the knowledge base and exchange the facts behind light pollution. Well, I know that you've been doing absolutely wonderful work over the last few years and I suppose just congratulations to yourselves and to everybody involved because it is really exciting, I think, that we have the opportunity now to honour this wonderful dark sky that we do have around Connemara and Mayo and all of those areas, but you certainly showed the way for so many people. So it was great talking to you, Georgia, and thank you so much for being with us this evening here on the program. Thank you. Pleasure. Thanks for having me. No problem. Bye, bye, bye, bye. Now that's Georgia MacMillan there, who's a development officer with the Mayo International Dark Skies Park, talking about their big award there, which is Dark Sky Place of the Year Award. And as you know, we've got our astronomy club here in Connemara. We also have our Dark Skies here in Connemara. And as I say, we are big supporters of them here in Connemara Community Radio. And it would be lovely to see more people getting on board and becoming aware of this again, as we said before, that it's obviously very much an environmental aspect, but it also has a lot of cultural aspects to it as well, and more and more recent times, very much a tourist aspect as well. So, well worth looking into from whichever part of the spectrum you come from. If you are, say, involved in tourism in some way, it might be worth looking at and trying to say, well, my area is a dark skies area, and maybe you would come and visit me. So, let's see how that progresses. But just once again, thank Georgia for that. And we're going to go now over to our ad break, and then we'll have more interviews after that. You've just been listening to The Eco Floss on Connemara Community Radio, a weekly programme focusing on environmental and climate sustainability. This programme is co-funded by Commissioner Naamán through the Sound and Vision Scheme. Don't miss out on our biggest sale ever at Clifton Station House Leisure Centre. 15% off six and 12-month memberships, swimming lessons and fitness classes. Let's sweat, smile and succeed this new year in the Clifton Station House. Call 095 30433 to avail of this fantastic sale, Call 095 30433 to avail of this fantastic sale, or pop into us, we are happy to help. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. It's sale time at Broderick Electrical, Castle Bar and Westport. Our January sale has started, so call in and grab yourself a bargain. With everything reduced, now is the time to upgrade your kitchen appliances, or treat yourself to the latest technology. So if you're looking for the best brands at the best prices, make sure to call in to Broderick Electrical, or look us up online at broderickselectrical.ie. 098 28130 for Westport, 094 904 4735 for Castle Bar. Clifton Supply Centre, Galway Road, Clifton. Provide building supplies, plumbing and heating supplies, fuel merchants, DIY and general hardware. Contact the Clifton Supply Centre on 095 21476. Welcome back to our programme. As I mentioned, we were going to look a little bit at a sponsorship programme for 2025 from Inland Fisheries Ireland. And to tell us more about this, I'm delighted to welcome Kevin Crowley, I'm the advisor with Inland Fisheries Ireland. Kevin, you're welcome to us once again here on Connemara Community Radio. Thanks very much, Brennan. Good to be back. It's been a long time since we spoke to you. Kevin, the new programme that you're launching, 30,000 Euros Sponsorship Programme, tell me a little bit about the background to this. I suppose one of our remits, Brennan, is to promote angling in Ireland. And as part of that, we allocate 30,000 Euros this year towards promoting fishing in communities and community engagement. So we provide some funding for clubs, federations, schools, etc. that want to provide angling or angling events for the community to maybe get some equipment or pay coaches or organise buses or, you know, things they need to run events. We try and help out with that as much as we can. Yeah. I suppose when you mentioned your schools and young people, I don't know what are the statistics about young people fishing now, but in the old days I know kids were always great at that. Is it the same now? Is it something that needs to be developed more to get more people fishing? Yes. Definitely the age profile of anglers is getting much, much older. Young people these days have so many distractions and other activities. When I was young, you know, there was football and hurling and there wasn't much else in the area. But now they have so many activities provided for them, as well as the screen, the ubiquitous screen of the Xbox, the television, the social media. Everyone has a mobile phone. And we say, you know, one of our slogans is trying to get the young people to swap the Xbox for a tackle box. So we're trying to promote youth angling, but it really needs to come... We don't have the resources to do it all ourselves. It really needs to come from communities and from angling clubs around the country to get coaches trained to provide the facilities or to provide the outings for young people to get them involved and interested in fishing. And I suppose, as you say, that it is a big problem to try and move them out there from that. But, I mean, you know, you often see at schools, they have people teaching them how to fly fish or whatever. I know you can do that without having a lake or a river beside. I mean, I suppose that people find fascination with something like that and even fly tying, which is a fascinating thing as well. You're looking, obviously, for people to develop these and then to come looking for funding from you. Yes, so there are angling clubs all over the country and throughout County Galway as well. And we would hope that clubs would, you know, appoint youth officers, get them coaching training, which can be provided, get them certified, get the coaches vetted and child protection training done, everything done properly so that when young people, when parents send their young children off to learn how to fish, that they know they're safe, that they know it's an approved activity. And we're providing funding for the clubs to run events then to get the children and get the young people involved in fishing and try and, you know, get them away from the screens. Yes, so what do clubs and organizations need to do if they are interested in getting some of this funding? Well, first of all, the call is on our website, fisheriesireland.ie. The call is open now. The deadline is the 24th of January, so there's a couple of weeks to get a proposal together. You know, we run everything from novice coaching sessions, from clubs right up to World Shore Angling Championships, which I attended in Wexford in November there, run by the Irish Federation of Sea Anglers, and that had teams from all over the world. It was a fantastic, fantastic event. And federations like that, they have a pathway up to international teams, from club anglers right up to provincial, right up to international, and joining an angling club is a great way to get involved in that. Okay, so they just need to then come up with a few ideas. How does the process work and methods? Do they have to go online, or is it all done by paper, or how do you look at everything? Yeah, no, it's a very easy process online. There's an application form online that they can fill out. It's all outlined on the website at fisheriesireland.ie. And once, you know, if there's any problems with applications, we'll work with clubs, we'll work with communities to fix them. We don't want to be turning down applications because of some little technical problem with the application. We'll help with getting them right. Okay, and as you say, that is the end of the 24th, is it? The 24th of January is the closing date, so any clubs or community groups that want to get involved, you know, get together, put your heads together, and come up with something in the next couple of weeks, please. Yeah, now this obviously is an ongoing sponsorship program that you run. I mean, how has it been over the last few years? I mean, has it generally brought up a lot of interesting pieces? Yeah, we've had, I think, 83 groups receive funding in 2024. It's an annual funding call we do. The amount allocated can vary depending on what we're given by the department, but generally it's at least €30,000. It can be €100 to help book a bus to bring kids to a fishing event. It could be €5,000 to a federation to run a World Championships. You know, whatever people apply for, we try and divvy out the money as best we can, spread it geographically, spread it by discipline of course angling, sea angling, game angling, et cetera, and we try and reach as many people as we can with that bit of money. Because I know for an awful lot of organizations, as you say, there may not be a huge amount of money in one sense, but €100 or €200 could really make a difference to something they're planning. So it doesn't really matter how small or how big until, you know, put in as much as you want or as little as you want and then see how you get on with it, I suppose. Exactly, exactly. It could be a youth group looking to book a bus and pay for permits at a stock fishery somewhere. It could be a club looking to buy a few rods to bring starter outfits that they can show to or teach kids how to fish, you know. We're not prescriptive about this and there's much more information on the website about what's available. Okay, well this is the very best to look to yourselves there in IFI and to everybody involved in fishing. I know the season will be starting fairly shortly for a lot of people so I'm sure now is the time for them to be planning of what they intend to do over the season. But Kevin, it's been great talking to you again and thank you so much. Happy New Year to you and to everybody there. And yourself and your listeners, Brendan. Always a pleasure to talk to you. Okay, Kevin, bye. Bye, bye. See you now, bye. Now this is Kevin Crowley there who is the talking to us about the Inland Fisheries Ireland programme there. There's 30,000 sponsorship programmes available for people and if you are involved in fishing in any way, whether it's, you know, shore, as you said, shore fishing, lake, river, whatever it might be and if you want to kind of get young people particularly involved this is a good chance maybe to get them there and to try and organise things a little bit more. So, I mean, there's loads of possibilities. It's a matter of kind of getting your head either there together and trying to work up at something. And you have until January the 24th and if you go online to the Inland Fisheries Ireland website you'll find the information there. And as I say, really, really interesting. I know that a lot of the kids in the past were very, very interested in fishing and, you know, a lot of people have kept that up all the way through their lives and have really enjoyed it. So, as I say, it's a good start and for a lot of people who may not have had a chance, you know, to try to see if there's a club around the area that they might get involved in doing something like this. But anyway, the best luck to them all there on that one. Now we are going to take a piece of music and after this we hope to speak with Dr Simon Moody, a post-doctoral researcher with the UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy about septic tanks and what they're planning to do there with that. We'll also have Linda Porter from GOI Women's Mini Marathon talking to us about the Mini Marathon which takes place by College on Monday the 3rd of February. And then later on I will have Anna Lardy, the CEO of Music for Galway, talking about the 22nd Winter Festival. Now this year they're looking at Ravel and that's taking place the 17th to the 19th of January in Galway. So, looking forward to hearing more about that. And then the last part of our programme will be classical music. So, again, that's to keep us going along the way. But I'm taking a piece of music here from Colin Blomstone from his album Greatest Hits. And, of course, he was around in the 90s and this particular album goes back into 1990. And we are going to listen to a lovely track from him which is called Say You Don't Mind. And, as I say, this one I hope you enjoy it here. Say You Don't Mind Don't mind, don't mind, nothing of this kind I came into this scene, my dreams were getting bad And you rise with the tide, you glide with what it has I've been doing some whining, now I'm doing some findings Say you don't mind, don't mind, nothing of this kind See you out blind, can't fit inside Can't fit inside, say you don't mind Say you don't mind Can't fit inside I've been doing some dying, now I'm doing some trying Say you don't mind, don't mind, nothing of this kind See you out blind, can't fit inside Say you don't mind When you get so bad, there's a storm that needs better time There's a time to get back and think of some better lines I've been doing some growing, but I'm scared of you going Say you don't mind, don't mind, nothing of this kind Nothing of this kind Good evening folks, you're very welcome along to American Country Brendan Ridge with you from now until 9 o'clock Sorry about that, it's an old thing there but anyway that was, as I say, American Country still going on and we love to hear people coming on that one Anyway, as I say, there's a program now, really shortly coming on to talk about septic tanks so there's a project that the UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy are going to talk to us about but we will do a little piece of music before this as well and we are going to take a track here from the wonderful Kate Purcell and we're going to listen to a track here from her which is called Reasons to Live and to leave I should say, Reasons to Leave and I hope you've got no reasons to leave, that you will stay with us until the end of the program Ireland's a dream of hope for what's to come Connemara Community Radio, Broadcasting, 87.8 and I'm a dream of what I've come to trust All that I have is telling me I shouldn't go and all that I know they're telling me I must Reasons to leave morning and night Reasons to stay music and love My brothers I tend and sisters I fight Four to one bed and room enough to grow All that we have is all that I've ever known and all that I have will be here when I'm gone Reasons to leave unfortunately for what's worth Reasons to stay heaven on earth I've heard of work up in Boston and tracks down to Salisbury Sometimes the night before you sleep I'm there Reasons to leave morning and night Reasons to stay music and love Reasons to leave unfortunately for what's worth Reasons to stay heaven on earth music and love heaven on earth Right, that was a lovely piece there from Kate Purcell, and that was a track from her album Shadows of You, and it's called Reasons to Leave, that particular one, and written by Ciarán Glass, a lovely track from her. Now I'm having a bit of a problem getting through to Dr Simon Moody, we will try to get him lined up, but at the moment I'm not able to reach him, so you'll have to just excuse me for a moment while we try to see if we can get a piece of music here. And we go to a piece from Juan Martín, a wonderful guitarist who's been to Tristan on a number of occasions, and almost very popular, but from an album which is called Musica Alhambra, we are going to have a little piece here from him, which we are going to go with, let me see, number 9 on this I think, and this one will be from Juan Martín, from his Musica Alhambra, this particular piece. Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Musica Alhambra Well, a very nice warming sound there for a cold evening like we have this evening. Now, as I mentioned, I was going to talk with Dr Simon Moody, a postdoctoral researcher at UCD's School of Architecture and Planning and Environmental Policy. Simon, you're very welcome, just here on Connemara Community Radio. Hi Brennan, thank you very much for having me on. I hope you're snug wherever you are. We're very snug here at the moment. I have to go out a bit later on, but hopefully to be fine. So, Simon, you're going to tell us a bit about a RE-MARC project. Tell me a bit about what this is all about. I am indeed. So, RE-MARC is essentially an acronym for Remediation of 40-Second Tank Systems to Risk Communication and Policy Improvement. And the purpose is essentially to investigate top-down, so that would be government, and bottom-up, that would be householder, barriers to system management. So, I guess if we're speaking to government and maybe county councils are a good place to start, we would look at the existing inspection regime, how those are going on the ground, also public engagement. Perhaps we're at a point now where we need more push information than pull information to make things a little easier for householders. And then on the householder end of things, we'd be looking at system maintenance. So, de-sludging, visual inspection, repairs, and maybe some of the barriers around these things. So, it could be financial, it could be perceptual, maybe there's a lack of knowledge. So, we're trying to establish those issues and bring together policies that address them in a clean, succinct way. I suppose when you're talking about septic tanks, people would have very mixed feelings about them because I suppose for an office of thinking of rural people, that's clearly the way they have of getting rid of waste. I presume this is more focused then obviously on the rural areas rather than urban areas. And that would be correct. You'd very seldom find people within or close to metropolitan areas. Maybe I guess in the suburban fringes of Dublin you would have a few, but yes. And I think you're right in mentioning that there is a bit of an urban-rural inequality there, whereby people do have to work out a little bit to get these things de-sludged, and of course a lot more to get them installed or retrofitted. So, you're quite right, I think it can be a little bit of a financial burden as well, and I think I can understand why rural people would be uneasy. In spite of my accent, I actually grew up in a house with a biocycle, so my parents are no strangers to how expensive it can be, and it's not getting any cheaper, for sure. So, I think you're right. Now, the survey that you want to carry out, how does that operate? Sure. So, the survey's online and it can be undertaken on SurveyMonkey, so that's the particular site that's actually hosting the survey. So, the survey's five sections take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete, and the principal part would relate to system knowledge, so system inheritance, whether a householder actually inherited the system, maybe the previous owners of the property or arranged installation themselves, system age, the system installer, also maybe the maintenance history, whether or not a household was subject to local authority system inspection in the past, if so, whether they addressed it, and we also have a hypothetical strand, so we ask people, if they were to be inspected one fine day, what would they do? Would they follow the actions, and if not, what would some of those barriers be? And there'd also be some questions in relation to confidence in maintaining supply, perceived barriers, policy preferences, people's views towards existing policies, why they were introduced, and also some general attitudes around safety of their tank. So, these are the kind of questions they would ask, and just quickly, I'll just make the point that we don't process or log IP addresses, so we have no way of identifying the exact location of respondents, nor do we want to. We're not trying to cast people out, we're just trying to improve existing policy, and a good way to do that is to find out how people feel and what some of those current knowledge levels are. As I said, a lot of people would maybe feel quite upset about some things like this, because it's not an easy subject in any sense, again, as you say, expense, and also, I suppose, the problems of being kind of forced into it by a lot of situations that, you know, the county council or whoever the local authority would say, you need to do this, that, or the other, and bring it up to date, or do something else with it. So, do you expect to kind of get fairly negative responses, or do you have any idea how people are going to respond to the questions? I think it's maybe perhaps a given that we'll get a few negative responses. Towards the end of the survey, we do have one or two questions that have a common focus for people to actually express their views, so it's not just simply a case of ticking an answer box. We do give people a little bit of leeway for a question or two to just put forward their own opinions, and yeah, I can completely understand why there would be reluctance, but I would say is we are trying to improve policies, and not to beat rural people over the head, because even if we speak to private well maintenance as well, I know there's issues around testing, and you very often have a co-occurrence in back gardens where if you have a private well, very high chance they're also going to have a safety tank, and even getting a well tested can be quite costly and quite difficult to find a lab that's going to do it, so we're trying to actually make this easier, and hopefully in a few years, there'll be some incentives around well testing, maybe in a few years, that can be, if not free, heavily incentivised, so we're reducing the financial burden on rural homeowners in terms of looking after their water supply, and also disposing domestic waste water safely and efficiently. Okay, works win-win for everybody. So, what's the timeline for this, Dan? When do people go online, or how long have they got to do this? That is a good question. We're still trying to decide that now, but I think I can say with confidence that it'll certainly be open for the remainder of January. I'm going to try to make the case to have it open until mid-February, and I can just briefly voice the web link now, perhaps, if that's okay. Okay, perfect. So it's cu.surveymonkey.com forward slash r forward slash remark survey and that's remark as in R-E-M-A-R-C. Okay, okay. And I should also say my email address is on the bottom of the survey introduction page, so we're not trying to make it too theoretical or bureaucratic, we're not hiding behind it, so if anyone has any issues, feel free to get in touch with me anonymously via that email address down there. I'll do my best to get back. Okay, so obviously then when you gather all this information and start putting it together, do you see then that this might then go to government and to local authority as a way of maybe making things easier for people? I think so, I think so. We'll present the findings to the EPA and maybe put together a small one to two page policy brief to try to condense what we find. I think something that will for sure emerge is that we need to have better engagement, and I can give a good example of that, Brendan. If you are, say, you want to get a system retrofitted or even installed in the first instance, it might be expensive, but it would be good to know what system installers actually adhere which system type and to what standards, and that information isn't actually readily available, so I would say there is an EU wastewater product testing website called pia-gmbh.com. If you enter that into a search engine with Irish search, it will give you a list of all septic tanks slash package treatment system installers. When I talk about package treatment systems, these would be things like biocycles, and it gives you a list of all installers in the country whose systems do adhere to those SR66M construction standards. So I think if resources like that were more readily available for people, I think it would make life easy. I think I mentioned push versus pull information. I think personally I'd say there's maybe too much of an onus for people to find the information themselves, and I think in terms of registering septic tanks, I think that's also an issue. I think a lot of people are unaware of the requirements, and I have some sympathy because it can be a bit of a pain. It's a €50 fine, but it is a legal requirement at the end of the day to get the system registered, so I think more and better information is certainly emerging as a finding already, Brendan. Okay. Well, Simon, it sounds like there's a lot of work to do, but thank you so much for being with us on the program talking about that, and as I say, we'll have that information here for people if they need to contact us, but it's been great talking to you this evening. Pleasure, Brendan. Thank you very much. Thank you. Bye-bye. That's Dr. Simon Moody there who is postdoctoral researcher with the UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, and if you live in a house with a private septic tank, they're looking for people to participate in that anonymous online national survey. Now it is quite a long piece. It's the eu.surveymonkey.com forward slash r forward slash remark survey, so that's r-e-m-a-r-c-s-u-r-v-e-y, so that's quite a long one, but as I say eu.surveymonkey.com forward slash r forward slash remark survey, and if you're interested and you need more information, contact us here 41616 during the daytime. We'd be happy to pass that information on to you as well, so it might be useful. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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