This morning, the EPA stated that Ireland was going to dramatically fail to meet its 2030 legally binding climate targets. This failure by the Government will have major financial consequences for Ireland, with fines running into billions of euro to be imposed by the European Union. Listening to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on the radio and listening to the Taoiseach in response to Deputy Bacik, you would swear this morning's announcement was actually good news - the Government patting itself on the back because it is only going to fail the first carbon budget by a small amount; delighted with itself that the link between emissions and growth is broken, even though plenty of European countries did that ages ago; listing past growth in renewable energy, even though that was led by Green Party policies; and entirely ignoring the fact that its climate action plan is five months behind schedule. I have a serious question: does this morning's announcement that we are so far off target cause the Taoiseach any concern whatsoever?

Sentiment score: -0.11