Lex Ferenda

I haven’t quite got used to this yet, but as of today the EU and North America (US/Canada - but not Mexico) are in the odd out-of-sync period of the year. Ireland is typically five hours ahead of the “Eastern” zone in North America (that is, the east coast of the US and most of Ontario and Quebec in Canada), and historically this has been reliable all year round except for a week in March due to different ’start dates’ for summer time (we started last weekend in March, they started first weekend in April) - with a (usually) common change-back date at the end of October.

However, changes to US law (in the Energy Policy Act 2005) and changes in Canada to keep things in line with the big sibling to the south (to my amusement, time zones are a matter of provincial - not federal - jurisdiction in Canada!) came into force last year; under the new system (designed to reduce energy costs, apparently) summer time (what they call daylight saving time) now begins on the second weekend in March and runs all the way to the first weekend in November.

So from today until Sunday 30th March, the difference between Ireland and the eastern zone is four hours, not five. For all you politics-watchers and sports-watchers, in particular, this means that you will miss whatever debates, programmes or fixtures you want to see if you don’t remember this and intend on watching live via the intertubes.

There’s something quite sad about talking about summer time on the day that Dublin has a major storm warning issued and some city roads will be closed off tonight and tomorrow due to the fear of serious flooding from the Irish Sea…