Full coverage: Climate action

The Irish Petroleum Industry Association is dead, long live Fuels for Ireland. The industry body representing oil importers and distributors and Ireland's only refinery has acknowledged that its members won't sustain their businesses into the future by selling fossil fuels.

The Programme for Government has promised €9.5 billion to help households and farmers become greener, funded by a four-fold increase in carbon tax over the coming decade. Data compiled by tax officials shows this is unlikely to happen.

Depending on who you talk to, the government’s move to increase Carbon Tax was either too much too soon or too little too late. Either way, the tax needs to be a stepping stone to a different Ireland. And that involves changes our systems of production.

Budget 2020 was both weird and strange. A tentpole policy you don’t want to see used. A recognition of the fiscal prodigal that is Health. A suite of inherently prudent measures, and a raft of other small things that might not get used at all. But it was also the budget we needed.