Earlier this month, it was announced that the government planned to raise defence spending from €1.1 billion to €1.5 billion, in 2022 prices, by 2028. According to them, this will be the largest increase in defence funding in the history of the state. Over the coming decades, Ireland’s public finances will face several, much greater, challenges.
The government is committed to 70 per cent of Ireland’s electricity being generated by renewable means by 2030. The Irish Academy of Engineering last year called for an official estimate of the cost of Ireland’s planned transition to more renewable electricity to be published. The academy said estimates of this cost ranged from €60 billion, according to MaREI at UCC, to the IMF’s mooted €200 billion. These figures contrast
