Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to follow up on a couple of questions regarding the corporate sustainability and due diligence directive. Colleagues have raised issues in respect of this, and I want to raise two matters with the Minister. The first is access to justice. Will Ireland push the EU to address the fact that the draft directive does not address the barriers victims face when trying to take court cases against EU companies for harms? The draft directive puts the burden of proof for a wide range of evidentiary parts on the claimants. That is hard for victims to prove in court, especially since it requires access to information in the hands of the company.

My second question concerns gender and the directive. Will Ireland push at the EU to address the fact that the draft directive is weak on gender and does not address the harms specifically faced by women? Will Ireland push for a corporate due diligence to conduct gender responsive mandatory human rights due diligence in the directive? For example, there are currently 60 to 70 million garment workers worldwide, 75% of whom are women. The vast majority are engaged in informal employment.