Ms Colette Bennett:

We wish to thank the committee for the opportunity to speak with it today on the subject of the sustainable development goals and the progress of individual Departments. This is obviously a very timely meeting in light of the voluntary national review and preparations for budget 2024. As the committee is no doubt aware, Social Justice Ireland publishes a sustainable progress index every year ranking Ireland’s progress towards the SDGs against our now EU14 peers. In this year’s edition, Ireland’s overall ranking was ninth out of 14. We also have sub-indices on Ireland’s performance on the economy, society and the environment, where we rank ninth, sixth and ninth, respectively.

Our index concludes with a series of policy recommendations at local and national level to help improve Ireland’s rankings. While we are aware of the remit of this committee and the relevant Department, as the Chair and the committee are undoubtedly aware, the SDGs are a policy framework for all Government Departments and policy and all Departments have a role to play in achieving them.

To address the first SDG, "No Poverty", we know that poverty is increasing in Ireland. There are 671,000 people in poverty, more than 188,600 of whom are children. This will make achieving the 2030 target very challenging. All of our recommendations in this context aim to enhance the standard of living of people who are most marginalised. We also urge the Department to fund research on the impact of recent cost-of-living increases on low-income households. This could begin with clients of the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, which falls under and is funded by the Department of Social Protection and which has a wealth of information on household budgets over time. That would be a really good place to start.

With regard to the second SDG, "Zero Hunger", we use indicators that are more relevant to poor nutrition and food security. Policies in this area include expanding the hot school meals programme, particularly for schools and preschools in disadvantaged areas and those with a high concentration of homeless children or children living in direct provision who do not have their own cooking facilities.

The third SDG is "Good Health". Policies in this area include ensuring that announced budgetary allocations are valid, realistic and transparent and that they take existing commitments into account. In 2019, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, published the figure of €900 million just to stand still and maintain existing levels of service, taking into account demographic change. Any increase in the health budget therefore has to include that amount. We also must improve the process of planning and investment so that the healthcare system can cope with the increase and diversity in population and the ageing of the population projected for the next few decades.

While Ireland scores very highly on the fourth goal, "Good Education", overall, it remains important to address educational disadvantage. We must work to improve educational outcomes for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and disadvantaged communities alongside the development of an integrated skills strategy with a focus in lifelong learning.

On the fifth SDG, "Gender Equality", we need to introduce a universal State social welfare pension, which is something for which we have been calling for quite some time. We must meet our Istanbul Convention obligations and provide sufficient resources to combat what the programme for Government called the epidemic of domestic abuse. Essentially, we must support high-quality community childcare, particularly in areas of socioeconomic disadvantage.

Our policy recommendations on the sixth SDG, "Clean Water and Sanitation", include continuing to provide support and advice to farmers to improve water quality under the agricultural sustainability support and advice programme and the development of a drinking water safety plan, following EPA guidelines, for each public water supply.

On the seventh SDG, "Renewable Energy", we need to upgrade the national grid and invest in the infrastructure necessary to support the transition to renewable energy.

One of our requests for budget 2024 is the investment of €1 billion of the surplus in infrastructure for wind energy. We need to invest in research into and development of the use of renewable energy and our public transport systems.

Our policy proposals on SDG 8, good jobs and economic growth, include launching a major investment programme focused on prioritising initiatives that strengthen social infrastructure. This programme will include a comprehensive schools building programme, a much larger social housing programme and supporting the adoption of a real living wage at €13.85 per hour.

On SDG 9, industry, innovation and infrastructure, our policy recommendations centre on the need for greater investment in social infrastructure and readiness for digitalisation.

SDG 10 relates to reduced inequalities. As Ms Carmody stated, there was an increase in inequality and poverty between 2021 and 2022. The latest Oxfam report refers to the growing number of millionaires and billionaires at a time when more than 671,000 people are living below the poverty line. Some policy recommendations here include the elimination of barriers faced by people with disabilities in: accessing basic services such as housing, healthcare, and education; fully implementing the recommendations of the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report.

On SDG 11, sustainable cities and communities, we propose setting a target of 20% of all housing stock to be social housing by 2030, resourcing the enforcement of legislation targeting short-term lettings and beginning the process of reducing the reliance of the rental sector on housing subsidies.

Our policy proposals on SDG 12, responsible consumption, include introducing a circular economy package for Ireland across all areas of economic activity, introducing a levy on single-use plastics, taxing air travel, reintroducing the windfall gains tax at 80% and exploring new initiatives to promote behavioural change through the tax system.

On SDG 13, climate action, we recommend establishing a just transition and adaptation dialogue to ensure that rural areas are not disproportionately impacted by low-carbon policies and are supported to meet the challenges posed by the future of work.

On SDG 14, life below water, our policy proposals include fully implementing the national integrated maritime plan, regulating harvesting, ending overfishing and implementing policies to restore fishing stocks to sustainable levels.

On SDG 15, life on land, our policy proposals include increasing afforestation of native trees, ensuring that sustainable agriculture policy and sustainable land management form the basis of future agricultural policy, investing in programmes to rewet the boglands and implementing the nature programmes set out in the climate action plan.

On SDG 16, peace and justice, our policy proposals include ensuring the national economic and social dialogue of partnership includes all five pillars, restoring funding to the community and voluntary pillar, ensuring adequate funding for civil legal aid and greater transparency of lobbying activities and establishing dialogue forums in every local authority area that will involve local authorities and the public participation networks, PPNs.

On SDG 17, partnerships for the goals, our policy proposals include: increasing official development assistance, ODA, to move towards the UN target of 0.7 % of national income; adopting targets and a reporting system for the SDGs; tagging all Government policies and policy proposals with the relevant goals; adopting targets and a reporting system for each of the SDGs; developing a new national index of progress, ensuring social and environmental issues are incorporated into our national accounts; including in the commission for regulating lobbying’s annual reports, policy areas with the greatest lobbying activity, the lobbying organisations and the designated public officials engaged to highlight to the general public those influencing the political decision-making process.

It is important to note the SDGs provide a policy framework for governments to progress towards a more sustainable society and economy overall. Our index also proposes that the SDGs be used to underpin a new social contract to ensure the well-being of all in Ireland and to promote both local and national social dialogue to ensure all people have a say in the decisions being made that affect their everyday lives. We welcome questions.