Full coverage: Economy

Current energy and transport plans show lessons from the hundreds of millions of euros wasted on peat-fired power stations have not been learned. Existing rules provide for the scrutiny needed to avoid this, but government departments simply ignore them.

In a special podcast following COP26 and the publication of Ireland’s Climate Action Plan, four of The Currency’s writers focused on climate change discuss the vast distance left to cover between official discourse and reality – and its implications for the role of the state.

It’s peak season for pre-budget submissions, with 15 examined here. A good way of analysing the demands coming from various sections of society is to relate them to the amount of taxpayers’ money spent on dog racing.

Under the us-versus-them approach favoured by conspiracy theorists, no policy decision can ever be made. Yet it underpins a lot of the reaction to the Government’s Housing for All plan among those who won’t settle for a step in the right direction – only a full leap into Nirvana.

Adam Tooze’s latest book chronicles the year between January 20, 2020, and January 20, 2021, as the world realised Covid for the threat it was and moved to deal with it. The economist and historian talks about how the crisis has altered the world, the nature of geopolitics and the future.

With no momentum to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, removing carbon from the atmosphere is our next best hope of slowing global warming. Yet planting trees is not happening either, which means it is time we put the right price on it.

Despite abundant knowledge on what needs to be done to stop global warming, it is not happening for the simple reason that nobody wants to do it. Humanity’s next best chance lies in technology.

Some columns are exercises in whataboutery. This column is an exercise in whatifery. Corporation tax receipts here are supposed to fall in the coming years. What if they rise?

KPMG managing partner Seamus Hand is bullish about the economic outlook. However, he is concerned that the recovery could be hampered by businesses being unable to access the right pool of talent.

Our private equity-backed world has created a modern two-class system: those who interact with the real world, and those who do not, with the latter being seen, strangely, as a privilege.