Ireland must decide whether it wants to remain on permanent summer time or permanent winter time from 2021 after the European Parliament this week voted to abolish clock changes across the EU.

On Tuesday, the European Parliament adopted a proposal to end twice-a-year clock changes across the EU with 410 MEPs in favour, 192 against and 51 abstentions.

Each country can now choose whether to stay on summer time or winter time permanently.

The countries that choose summer time will make their final clock change on the last Sunday of March 2021.

Those who keep their winter time will switch for the last time on the last Sunday in October 2021.

The move follows a European-wide survey of 4.6m people from 28 member states. It was the highest ever number of responses for a European Parliament public consultation and enough to crash its computer system.

The majority, 84%, of those surveyed were in favour of abolishing the annual clock change.

The main reasons given for abolishing the clock changes were human health (43%) and a lack of energy saving (20%).

Some 3.1m Germans voted in the survey, accounting for 70% of all responses. Less than 1% of Ireland’s population took part in the survey but of those who did, almost 80% described the clock change as a negative experience.

Irish response

Closer to home, 16,000 Irish people responded to a Department of Justice consultation about the clock change in October and November 2018, and a further 1,000 people were surveyed in an Amárach Research opinion poll.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told the Irish Farmers Journal that a report on its consultation is being prepared and will be considered by an interdepartmental steering group for submission to Government “within weeks”.

Consultation

The European Parliament has called on countries to consult each other when making final decisions to avoid disruption.

Only Ireland, the UK and Portugal are currently in the same time zone.

If a post-Brexit UK were to retain the clock change, Ireland would then be out of sync with its nearest neighbour for six months of the year and there could also be potentially two time zones on the island of Ireland.

The graphic alongside this article shows the difference in sunset and sunrise times, depending on whether Ireland chooses to remain permanently on summer time or winter time.

The next switch to summer time is taking place this Sunday, with clocks moving forward one hour at 1am.