Climate change remains a primary global and national issue and existential threat. Without seeking to downplay externalities like the digital economy, major conflicts such as the Ukraine/Russia war or other geopolitical issues, future economic and social development will be informed and influenced for generations by long-term policy decisions on climate made in today’s short-term political cycle, according to Ciarán Hayes.

Sixty-five years ago, a post World War II Ireland stood at an inflection point. A young, independent but largely agricultural and rural State, the country embarked on a previously uncharted path and embraced T.K. Whitaker’s ambitious and at the time radical 1958 ‘Economic Development’ policies.

The country’s long-term development needs took precedence over the much shorter-term political cycles, cycles that continue to this day. Decisions made then sowed the seeds for the emergence of our current small open economy and were complemented by Donogh O’Malley’s decisions on free second level education in the 1960s.