Yet the Kyoto Protocol's most enduring legacy may be a uniquely American idea - that emissions trading can help control heat-trapping gases at low cost.

For a start Minister Varadkar, without seeking approval from on high, set off on a solo run informing the public that not everything in the pie-in-the-sky programme for Government was achievable.

He's the most tettish knave

to repair a house, a road, a shoe, a ship