Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was lucky to take part in the Future of Europe process over the past few years, which included 800 citizens from across Europe and a number of parliamentarians. One thing that was interesting was the issue of ethical supply chains and business, which came across from all of kinds of groups, including the business group, the environment group and the social group. The message that the forum sent to the European institutions included multiple recommendations on transparency, which relates to the reporting issue, given that we cannot leave it to the consumers if they do not have the information they need to make those choices, but also on due diligence, ethical standards and wanting Europe to lead. That needs to be remembered. I hope that the Government will remember where it was one year ago, that being, in a position where it was supporting these decent, reasonable standards that are in the corporate due diligence directive.

There has been some opportunism, probably in the wake of the change in America and a deregulatory rush there. An opportunistic thing happened this spring with the omnibus Bill and the erosion of hard-won, sensible, balanced and, if anything, conservative standards. It is not lost at all; there was just a move. It is still there for the negotiation. Our Government can make a clear and strong impact. It will have the impact of citizens across Europe because when word starts getting out, we will find that these are issues that people care about.

On regulation, we talk about burden, but when things go wrong and one gets a Rana Plaza, the public asks where the standards, regulations and accountability were. What people do not want to hear is that we let the largest corporations in the world off the hook and they do not have to do anything. They have a climate plan, but we told them not to bother implementing it or we told them that, even if they were megacorporations with €450 million in revenue each, they did not have to tell us where the critical minerals were coming from or whether they knew they were taking minerals from a conflict zone if they just tell us about one supplier. It is politically that we end up taking account for it as politicians when the scandals break. The accountability will be that we had the opportunity. We have that opportunity now, so I hope that there will be a political contribution. There are subsidiarity issues with that overreach in trying to limit us in even having the option of putting future human rights standards on, for example, corporate criminal liability down the line.

As a committee, I hope we will do everything it can. This is not over. The standards were there. The public were there. It is simply an opportunistic move that needs to be turned around and can be turned around by political and civilian society action.

I thank the witnesses. I was glad to see some strong common points with IBEC and others. The chambers of commerce have been great on the sustainable development goals, SDGs, and other issues. They will probably be strong on these issues, too.