I love this time of year. The air is fresh, bird song abounds and you get a particular shade of green. It really does soothe the soul. I can’t say it often enough. We are very lucky with our temperate climate which does not often expose us to extremes. People do come here for the rain. Let us hope for the next year and the ones to come that we are not severely disrupted by the El Nino effect.
I love this time of year. The air is fresh, bird song abounds and you get a particular shade of green. It really does soothe the soul. I can’t say it often enough. We are very lucky with our temperate climate which does not often expose us to extremes. People do come here for the rain. Let us hope for the next year and the ones to come that we are not severely disrupted by the El Nino effect. However, what is clear is that the changing climate will create a massive global refugee crisis. Some of these people will end up on our shores. As a nation it is remarkable that we have managed to absorb over 80,000 refugees in such a short period of time. I find it easy to visualise this as it coincides with a capacity crowd at a Slane Concert. However, there is also no question that there is massive public sympathy for the plight of the Ukrainian people fleeing the naked aggression of Vlad the Bad. Less well understood are the myriad other reasons for people ending up here, despite the fact that some of them may be fleeing circumstances equally horrific. The government do not have an easy task but central to their approach must be to communicate and listen to the communities where they intend to place these new arrivals. It is clear that the Taoiseach is acutely aware of the sensitivity of the issue and he quite rightly seeks to have our social supports for asylum seekers aligned with other European countries so we are not seen as a destination for economic migrants. The government need to stay right on top of this because it is going to place an additional pressure on housing. Circumstances could also turn very ugly and the extreme right will try to stoke up local anxiety. Minister for Integration Roderick O’Gorman has a difficult brief. To be honest, I do not envy him in his task.
Finally, some really good news from Ukraine which means it is bad news for Vlad the Bad. How about the extraordinary performance of the Patriot missile system installed to protect Kiev from Russian missile attack. The billion-dollar machine had to deal with an onslaught that was “ exceptional in its density”, representing the maximum number of missiles in the shortest period of time. Most startling of all is that it shot down 6 hypersonic missiles called Kinzhal that can reach 3700 mph or 5 times the speed of sound. Putin had said that they were unstoppable and I have to admit when I first heard about them I had deep concerns about the damage they could inflict. The performance of the Patriot is in a very real sense a game-changer because it might also make the Russians rethink any plans they may have to use nuclear tactical weapons. Apart from the appalling loss of life the sheer cost of this war is staggering. The Ukrainian defence of their capital city every time Russia launches a strike runs into millions of dollars. Meanwhile as the awful meat-grinder around Bakhmut grinds on, what of Ukraine’s offenses? I suspect it has already started with the Ukrainians probing everywhere along the lengthy frontline looking for a weakness. I hope they find plenty.