Madam, – Frank McDonald’s analysis of the proposed climate change legislation in Ireland makes for depressing reading (Opinion, January 17th). The legislative proposal is itself of limited ambition, with huge concessions already having been made to placate the various lobby groups, but it seems the usual suspects are crying bloody murder (and wolf) in attempt to strip the Bill of any meaning.
As a former Ibec press officer, it never ceases to amaze me how the Irish media gleefully regurgitates Ibec’s evidence-less arguments that are offered up every time a Government tries to introduce progressive legislation with which Ibec does not agree. Ibec (and its subsidiary trade organisations) is at it again, claiming that the proposed climate legislation will cost jobs, without providing any evidence to back this up as usual. The truth is the opposite: this legislation should spur innovation and create jobs in the growing global green economy.
Ireland is well positioned to gain from this global shift but not if the disingenuous spin of Ibec and the IFA wins out and holds our country back. – Yours, etc,