Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a very high level of confidence that all that can be done to meet the targets, while assisting our economy in still growing, is being done. I can see a gigantic amount of activity under way. Meeting the targets will be extremely challenging and difficult. Many countries will struggle to meet them but we face a particular challenge due to the features within our economy.

In terms of how we would account for how we pay the fines in the future, we will, first, do all we can to avoid having to pay them by being able to show good faith, and, I hope, evidence, we are meeting or coming closer to the targets. If the fines are to be paid, they will have to be found in two different ways. We could either pay them from the budget surplus, as I hope we still have at that time, or from the money we will have built up on our balance sheet as a State, which we are slowly but significantly building. We have a particular pot in the climate and nature fund, although my preference would be to use that fund to spend money to minimise the targets, rather than having to leave aside money to pay fines.