Earlier this week, Cork County Council discussed the flood damage done to towns such as Bantry, which has suffered hugely recently. For some businesses in the West Cork town, the flood which hit them on October 5 was the fifth time since 2020 in which they have suffered significant flood damage.

One councillor at the meeting called for a rates waiver, and council chief executive Moira Murrell said the council would continue to engage with businesses struggling to pay rates due to flooding. She added that the council would work with businesses which are affected by the flood relief works due to begin in the town in 2026.

Another cost associated with flooding emerged in a Central Bank warning this week which stated that one in 20 buildings across the country face difficulties in obtaining flood insurance; the Central Bank added that costs to the State from severe floods are likely to climb significantly in future decades.

These two strands intersect in different ways: One councillor in Cork said the county council should not be expected to carry the financial loss of rates reductions, calling for the cost must be borne by central Government.

For its part, the Central Bank called for stakeholders such as the Office of Public Works and the insurance industry to work together to better manage the risks arising from climate change.

Clearly there are specific local issues such as the flooding in Bantry which need to be addressed, while there are also overarching national challenges such as the co-ordination of efforts to to combat the climate crisis.

However, what group is taking the lead in this area?

Acknowledging a problem is a positive step, but organising a coherent, collective response is surely the next one.

Powering tech: Google takes nuclear option

The perception that some of the bigger tech companies operate above and beyond ordinary constraints can be hard to ignore. The impunity with which several social media companies regularly break laws governing privacy and data is a case in point.

A different example surfaced this week in California, where Google is reported to have ordered six to seven small nuclear reactors from Kairos Power. The first of these is due to be completed by 2030 and the remainder by 2035, with Google expressing the hope that this deal will provide a low-carbon solution to power data centres.

Such data centres are needed now more than ever due to the growth in both cloud storage and the demands of generative AI, but this development should give us pause on a number of fronts.

The fact that a private company is buying nuclear reactors to address its energy demands is an astonishing development. It demonstrates the energy requirements of modern technology, which are extraordinary, but it also illustrates the political clout of such companies if they are to be allowed to use nuclear reactors for their own use.

For readers with an eye to the ironies of history, there was plenty to consider in a similar story which emerged last month, when Microsoft arranged to take energy from the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, a deal which activated the plant for the first time in five years. In 1979, it was the site of the most serious nuclear accident in US history.

Anyone suggesting back then that a computer company would reopen Three Mile Island decades later to power data centres developing artificial intelligence would have been accused of pitching a science-fiction story of outlandish dystopia, yet here we are.

Irish readers should not feel complacent in this regard. We know data centres here already consume more energy than domestic consumers, and the growing focus on AI is likely to require even more energy. 

It would be strange if the requirements of private companies and anonymous data centres, rather than the general public, made nuclear energy a possibility in Ireland. Whether the general public would accept that possibility remains to be seen.

Cheating at conkers takes balls of steel

A terrible blow this week to all who believe in fairness in elite sport generally, and the sanctity of the World Conker Championships in particular.

Organisers of the championships are investigating cheating allegations after the men’s winner was found with a steel chestnut in his pocket.

David Jakins won the title in Southwick, Northamptonshire, last week, but the 82-year-old was found with a metal replica in his pocket when searched by organisers after his victory. The retired engineer has denied using the metal conker in the tournament.

Jakins had other responsibilities at the tournament, being responsible for drilling and inserting strings into other competitors’ chestnuts as the competition’s top judge.

This meant he was known as the ‘King Conker’, which adds an undeniable flavour to the comments from other participants (“There are also suggestions that King Conker had marked the strings of harder nuts,” said a spokesman).

While it is illuminating to learn that the World Conker Championships is so carefully regulated, it is disappointing to hear suggestions that cheating may have occurred. 

If conkers is not clean, what is?