It’s that time of year when Daylight Savings Time (DST) – or summer time – begins and the clocks go forward an hour.
At 1:00a.m tomorrow (Sunday, March 31), the time jumps ahead by one hour to 2:00a.m, meaning you’ve lost an hour in bed.
The practice of Daylight Savings Time exists to provide an extra hour of daylight during the summer months, historically for the purpose of conserving energy for lighting, though the practice has also been historically beneficial to farmers, allowing them additional daylight to complete their daily jobs during the summer.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, there was serious talk in the EU about ending the practice, and for EU member states to simply pick summer or winter time, and stick with that throughout the year.
The European Parliament even voted in favour of such a move, before the pandemic, and other issues, pushed the DST debate aside.
At the time, the prospect of having either only winter time or only summer time all-year-round gave rise to a particular issue in Ireland: as the UK also uses DST, but would not be bound by any EU-wide changes due to Brexit, the time in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland would be one hour apart for half the year.
Although the political debate on Daylight Savings Time is on hold at the moment, public debate on the benefits, or otherwise, of DST continue.
If we used DST all year around, we would still get the summer time we’re used to, but winter mornings would be dark for longer than what we’re accustomed to. If we abolished DST altogether, we would still get the winters we’re used to, but daytime during summer would be shorter than what we now experience.
As there is hardly any profession more ‘outdoorsy’ than farming, Agriland asked some farm organisation representatives for their views.
Teresa Roche, the Farm Family and Social Affairs Committee chairperson for the Irish Farmers Association, said that the current system has value for farmers and the work they do.
She said: “I think the daylight savings is important to us… I just feel we need the extra hour of light just for the labour and the workload. Especially with farming being an outdoor work, and also the climate that we’re having, it’s extremely wet and cold… It’s a huge issue with vey wet land and people trying to get sheep and cattle out and checking on animals at night.”
According to Roche, there is also a mental health issues associated with this.
“Mental health as well is an important aspect of it, with the lack of sunlight… Isolation and loneliness effects two-thirds of the rural population, and especially the farming community, it’s probably one of the biggest impacts, physically and mentally,” she said.
“I do believe for your mental health, daylight and sunlight is very important to wellbeing. It gets people out more and they are more socially engaged when there is more sunlight and more activity going on. The darker days are hard on people,” Roche added.
Denis Drennan, the president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA), said that there are pros and cons on both sides of the debate, but questioned the benefit of holding on to Daylight Savings Time for the whole year.
“Everybody likes the bright evenings to come home from work and it’s a bit longer and people can maybe get out and go for a walk. There’s a practical side to it too. If you take the middle of winter – when it’s dark until 8:00a.m or 8:15a.m – if you held on to summer time it’s dark until 9:00a.m or 9:15a.m,” Drennan said.
“From a farmer perspective it’s nice to be able to get up and get out in daylight when its much safer to do jobs and do work, rather than waiting until 9:00a.m or 9:30a.m,” he added.
“There’s pros in the summer time and the spring time when it’s brighter in the evenings, but you certainly need to think of the depths of the winter when it’s dark. If you held on to summer time it would be dark until 9:00a.m or 9:15a.m, and there’s a practical and a safety level to it as well.
“Everybody likes to get up and get on with their business, especially on farms. We’re not for or against it, [but] that has to be kept in mind, safety has to be an issue, and working in darkness in the winter time is a challenge,” the ICMSA president added.
Vincent Roddy, president of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) focused on the difficulty that would be presented if the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland had different time zones for half the year.
“The first thing is it would be quite difficult if they don’t change it in the UK, because just on the island of Ireland we would be operating two different time zones for six months of the year… The big problem would be if the EU does it and the UK doesn’t, it would create a major problem,” he said.
“Probably people would adjust to it, but that would be an issue,” Roddy added.
He also noted that the extra hour provided in the evening through DST could benefit not just farmers, but could also give children the opportunity to get out and get active.
“Possibly in winter time, it may give farmers, especially a part-time farmer, when they come home from work, a little bit of daylight that they currently don’t have. Whether that would be massive I don’t know, but there could be a positive, definitely, in that.
“I know for children, for school, it would give them more time and that’s an argument to be made. There could be a positive for farmers and for children to give them more daylight hours to go outside,” Roddy said.
“There could be a benefit in winter time to have that extra hour. I definitely think there is benefit, especially for part-time farmers.
“Now for many it won’t make any difference, and some people might prefer it in the morning anyway and say it means ‘I might get work done before I go out in the morning’,” the INHFA president added.
Sean McNamara, the president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmer’s Association (ICSA), is very much in favour of keeping summer time all-year-round.
“The way it is now with an extra hour of daylight, it make an awful difference to farmers doing work. It makes things a little bit easier. There won’t be as much pressure as working in the dark,” he said.
“I think it would be a way better idea [to retain summer time for the whole year]. We would have an extra hour in the evening. We’re all racing against the clock as it is, trying to get things done in the daylight hours,” McNamara added.
Like Roache, the ICSA president also drew attention to the mental health aspect.
“A brighter day will leave farmers in better form. It leaves farmers in better form so they can do something. This thing of a dark day and long dark nights, and farmers sitting there on their own… and no one to talk to and everything. That’s a big thing,” he said.
“Mental wellbeing is a big issue among farmers at the moment, with everything going on. I’d say that’s a serious issue, I see it around me. Especially this year with the way things went with the weather, it’s a big big issue,” McNamara added.
Irrespective of the debate, there won’t be a change this year, so remember: at 1:00a.m tomorrow morning, the clocks go forward one hour.