Ms Meaghan Carmody:

Coalition 2030 is grateful for the invitation to address the committee on matters relating to the sustainable development goals, SDGs. In 2015, all UN member states signed up to Agenda 2030, and committed to progressing its 17 goals, 169 targets and more than 230 indicators. Agenda 2030 is aimed at ending poverty in all its forms. It is grounded in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and international human rights treaties, and emphasises the responsibilities of all states to respect, protect and promote human rights. Two underlying principles of Agenda 2030 are to leave no one behind and to reach the furthest behind first.

We are halfway through the Agenda 2030 implementation period, and urgent action from all Departments is required in order to achieve the SDGs. On 19 July Ireland will present its SDG progress to the UN for peer review, via the voluntary national review, VNR, process. We are, along with Qatar, co-facilitating the development of an SDG political declaration, which will be agreed this summer and unveiled at the SDG summit in September, under the auspices of the UN General Assembly. This has been described by the UN Secretary General as the rescue plan for the SDGs, as only 12% of targets are on track to be met globally. Ireland has made significant strides in terms of national SDG governance, in particular the 2022 policy map, which names lead Departments for the achievement of specific SDG targets. However, we have identified three issues in particular, which are relevant to the Departments under the purview of this committee.

First, the availability of appropriate data to adequately enable accountability hinders the effectiveness of the policy map. Disaggregated data is required at the indicator level to ascertain progress. We encourage this committee to seek indicator data from its respective Departments, as well as evidence conveying the trend in progress. Merely noting the existence of policies is, crucially, not sufficient to assess progress. Second, the policy map is too narrow in how it ascribes responsibilities to the Department of Social Protection under goal 8. The Department should have more responsibility for achieving target 8.5, as it is responsible for the roll-out of the Pathways to Work strategy, strand 4 of which is "Working for All - Leaving No One Behind." Third, we have identified a serious communication error relevant to this committee, which if not addressed, risks misrepresenting our SDG progress. In Ireland’s VNR it is stated that we are achieving SDG 1 - no poverty. This may be true if we are using indicator 1.1.1, the "proportion of the population living below the international poverty line of $1.25." However, there is broad agreement that this measure is meaningless for people living in Ireland. Nevertheless, in our VNR summary report, the Central Statistics Office, CSO, conveyed our progress based on this indicator. In addition, the $1.25 figure is outdated and was updated to $2.15 by the World Bank in 2022. The claim that we are achieving no poverty also implies that Ireland is achieving the other SDG 1 targets, which we encourage the committee to investigate.

Of course, Ireland is not achieving no poverty, and the furthest behind are not being reached. Overall, the percentage of people at risk of poverty increased from 11.6% in 2021 to 13.2% in 2022. Some 17.7% of Ireland's population is in deprivation, which is an increase from 13.8% in 2021, and the levels of people in consistent poverty are 5.3%, up from 4%. This is far from the Government's target for consistent poverty to be 2% or less by 2025. One in five persons unable to work due to long-standing health problems is living in consistent poverty. Renters are more likely to be in poverty than owner-occupiers, and while fewer than 30% of the population are living in rented or rent-free accommodation, they make up more than 70% of those living in consistent poverty. The at risk of poverty rate in persons aged 65 and over increased from 11.9% in 2021 to 19.0% in 2022. Almost one in four one-parent families are at risk of poverty, compared with 13.1% of persons living in two adult households with between one and three children. The deprivation rate for this cohort is almost 45%. Almost half of those who are unemployed experience deprivation, and almost one in five is in consistent poverty. Official statistics do not reflect poverty levels among Travellers, Roma and people who are homeless. Income inadequacy is higher for people in rural areas, especially for those in receipt of core social welfare payments and in low-paid or minimum wage employment. Inflation is higher for lower income, older and rural households, largely because of transport and energy dependencies. The lack of a decent public transport system in rural areas disproportionately negatively affects older people and disabled people, who are more often reliant on a car. Rural households are more at risk of energy poverty due to limited opportunities to switch to cheaper fuels. In addition, 42% of the rural building stock is relatively old, and so is less energy efficient and has higher fuel bills than modern homes. The State depends on the community and voluntary sector to deliver essential services and reach the furthest behind in many areas. However, a lack of adequate funding creates challenges for service delivery and staff retention. Funding must, in particular, be increased for supporting basic digital skills programmes; the lack of which disproportionately affects those furthest behind.

In our report, we make the case that the State has so far failed to effectively embed the SDGs across Government and provide the necessary political leadership for their achievement. As a result, rather than reaching the furthest behind first, the State has instead left many people behind. The State must do the following in order to address SDG governance issues and enable all Departments to reach the furthest behind first. First, it must move overall responsibility for SDG implementation to the Department of the Taoiseach. Second, it must integrate the SDGs into the budget, with every budget line linked to an SDG target, investing at least €15 million in the 2024 budget for disaggregated data collection. Third, the State must create a national SDG policy impact measurement framework, and enable the enable the public participation networks, PPN, and communities to be true partners in policy design and SDG implementation. Fourth, it must measure what matters, by resourcing the CSO to collect relevant, disaggregated, and timely data, which would inform policies to reach the furthest behind. Finally. it must establish the position of future generations commissioner, on a statutory footing, whose mandate will be to ensure that no actions today undermine the sustainable future of generations to come.

Given the VNR is an international peer review process, honesty is paramount. We, therefore, encourage this committee to scrutinise claims relating to its Departments’ progress and how efforts to date are communicated to the Irish public and internationally. We suggest that Departments ensure that nationally relevant data is employed in our national SDG assessments. There now exists an opportunity for this, as the CSO is currently working with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to look at targets in an Irish context. We encourage the committee to ensure the Departments actively engage with this process. We must measure what matters, and employ more useful data in order to reach the furthest behind first. Without shifts in our approach to measurement, as well as other elements of governance, the State will continue struggling to reach the furthest behind first, rendering delivery on the SDGs categorically unachievable. We are living through the last best chance to achieve the SDGs, and this committee has a crucial role to play. My colleagues and I welcome questions and comments.