Ms Meaghan Carmody:

Yes. We are advocating for these two items. First, we are advocating for the overall delivery and implementation of the sustainable development goals, SDGs, to be moved to the Office of the Taoiseach. At the moment, it is in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. We feel that it needs leadership from the very top in order to facilitate that interdepartmental working and ambition for the SDGs, which to date, we have not seen at the scale or urgency that is required. To date, we have not received an adequate response as to why it is not in the Department of the Taoiseach. This is further entrenching the idea that the SDGs are an environmental agenda, when I think we have clearly articulated that they are far more than that. They are about a society and an economy that works for everybody. There are a number of other units that are in the remit of the Department of the Taoiseach. There is the well-being initiative, and the child poverty unit. They are in the Department of the Taoiseach as well, and one can see the resourcing that is put behind these initiatives when they are in there. We have found that resourcing, and the lack of adequate resourcing, is a key issue consistently since Agenda 2030 was agreed by all UN member states.

Second, there is the future generations commissioner. Their role would be to be a set of eyes on policy coherence. This is an idea within SDG 17, policy coherence for sustainable development, PCSD. As alluded to earlier, the SDGs can have positive ripple effects, if integrated. One example is if we have climate initiatives that could positively impact health in terms of reducing air pollution. It can also have the opposite effect; there can be trade-offs. For example, our national tax policies might have negative implications for SDG delivery and achievement around the world. The future generations commissioner would be a commissioner tasked with keeping an eye on, for want of a better term, this policy coherence, and drawing attention to those trade-offs. At the moment, we do not have somebody who is responsible for that. We are seeing trade-offs happening between Departments.

There is an interdepartmental working group set up. The last time I checked, the last updated minutes for that were from 2019. It is now halfway through 2023, and the minutes have not been updated. That is not good enough. The senior officials group we know is chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach but we are not having the impact that we need. For example, regarding the two Departments under this committee's purview, the most recent annual reports suggest that the Departments are not reporting at target level, again and again. It is not the only Department, by a long stretch, but this has to happen, as per the national implementation plan, and we do not have a clear outline on how the Departments are doing on each of the targets they are responsible for as per the policy map.

There are a lot of things that are not being done. If it was in the Department of the Taoiseach, we feel this would have a lot more impetus and urgency, and we would not be facing a lot of the trade-offs that we see in Irish society. I am happy to send on more information to the Senator.