Mr. Colm Forde:

The Senator mentioned the competitive disadvantage for companies that have already started the sustainability journey. We are conscious, as we outlined, that Ireland was one of the first countries to transpose the CSRD. Seventeen other countries have not done so. We have raised as an issue the concerns that Irish companies are complying with CSRD whereas in other countries that law has not been transposed.

We said that one of the competitive advantages Ireland seeks to have is to provide a stable regulatory regime that is proportionate and enforceable. As such, it is not ideal that the regulations are being amended so quickly. As the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, has publicly stated, that is why the ambition is to have this done as urgently as possible to try to provide certainty to businesses so that they know how to invest appropriately and that the competitive playing field is levelled.

On the risk-based approach, the obligation still rests on the company that is in scope. They go as far as the tier 1 supply chain but the responsibility is still with the companies that are in scope. As we said earlier, if the company is aware of plausible information beyond that, the obligation is still on the company in scope to address that.