The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change Advisory Council have defended their assessment that Ireland could face fines of between €8 billion and €26 billion for breaching emissions targets.
Their statement follows comments by the Minister for Climate, Energy and Environment Darragh O'Brien who questioned their calculations yesterday at a press conference.
Today the two organisation said the analysis was "thorough, robust, and independently peer reviewed".
They said they examined a "range of potential outcomes" and reflected the "plausible upper and lower bounds based on international evidence."
They added the wide range figures for the fines illustrated the"high degree of uncertainty involved."
They said Ireland has already had to pay compliance costs in the past in respect of the Kyoto
Protocol and the Effort Sharing Decision.
In addition, Ireland is already forgoing EU Emissions Trading Scheme revenues of in excess of €100m a year since 2021.
