Possible implications for Northern Ireland of the Daylight Saving Bill

Written evidence from Mary Lutton

1. I feel it can not be stressed highly enough that the implications of the Daylight Saving Bill are different in the different areas of the United Kingdom.

2. Any "official" writing on the subject seem to focus on the effects on the South East of England as do the majority of the "letters" published in the press and the media in general.

3. In Northern Ireland where I live we are not only further North but further West. This means that the mornings are dark for longer with the increased dangers from traffic with people going to work and children going to school that that brings.

4. I have vivid recollections of the time when BST was retained throughout the winter as a trial. I spent an extra two months going to work in the dark and found that an extra hour in the evening did not mean that I was getting home in daylight (though it probably would for children at school). While I cannot claim to suffer from SAD I found this extremely depressing and as I worked in an environment where there is almost no natural light (namely an operating theatre) there was a prolonging of the period when I saw no daylight during the working week. At the end of the "trial" I can remember saying that I felt I was living the life of a pit pony.

5. It is not possible to overlook the effects on the Republic of Ireland are they to follow suit with a time change or to suffer the inconvenience of being in a different time zone to the country to whom their way of life is firmly linked. Many parts of Eire are even further West than Northern Ireland.

8 March 2011