Mr. David Rossiter:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for the opportunity to address them today on behalf of Coalition 2030, an alliance of over 70 civil society organisations working to ensure Ireland delivers on its commitments to the sustainable development goals. I will outline Ireland’s progress to date in achieving the SDGs, as well as the opportunities presented by Ireland’s upcoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union, particularly in advancing SDG delivery at EU level, strengthening civil society engagement and promoting climate and biodiversity action as part of the Presidency agenda.

My colleagues at Social Justice Ireland have just presented to members their excellent Sustainable Progress Index report for 2025. I would also like to highlight to the committee the 2024 Sustainable Development Report, which was published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The annexe to the submission contains some information in that regard. In this report, Ireland ranks 28th out of 166 countries for overall SDG progress. The report highlights persistent and emerging challenges, particularly in relation to SDG 13, climate, SDG 14, life below water, SDG 15, life on land, and SDG 12, responsible consumption and production. Progress remains stagnated or regressing in some of those areas. Furthermore, inequalities, which is goal SDG 10, persist in income, health, housing, and policy coherence across Departments and continue to present a barrier to systemic change.

We also acknowledge the important steps taken, including the publication of Ireland's second SDG national implementation plan, the establishment of the SDG stakeholder forum and ongoing interdepartmental co-ordination. However, the scale and pace of progress must increase significantly if Ireland is to meet the targets set for 2030.

Ireland’s upcoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union offers a unique opportunity to re-energise Ireland’s and Europe’s commitment to the 2030 agenda. We note Ireland’s engagement in the EU working party on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and Ireland will chair this working group as part of its EU Presidency. We urge the Government to use the Presidency to champion SDG implementation at the EU level. This can be achieved by adopting a Presidency theme that aligns with and builds on Denmark’s 2025 focus on SDGs 14 and 15, life below water and life on land. Effectively, the Danish Government is using the SDGs as the thematic framework for its Presidency.

We recommend this committee advance policy coherence on the SDGs by ensuring all council working groups consider the SDGs in their deliberations. That same level of policy coherence is needed domestically at the national level. The OECD recently hosted policy coherence for sustainable development workshops with civil servants and civil society, which also focused on the development of Ireland’s third national implementation plan. These workshops made it clear that much more needs to be done to ensure effective co-ordination across Departments in delivering the SDGs. For this reason, the coalition has long advocated for responsibility for the SDGs to be transferred from the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment to the Department of the Taoiseach.

We also want to highlight the importance of strengthening civil society engagement with the EU as a key opportunity during Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Shrinking civic space and reduced opportunities for dialogue are growing concerns across Europe.

Ireland’s Presidency should champion good practices in inclusive consultation, create space for collaboration, and establish strategies with measurable targets to ensure civil society engagement is genuine, meaningful and not tokenistic.

Ireland has valuable practices to share in this area. Initiatives such as the Civic Forum, an annual event in partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development, the dialogue forum with voluntary organisations, and the national five-year strategy to support the community and voluntary sector are all strong examples of good practice. The values and principles for collaboration and partnership offer a robust framework for inclusive consultation and engagement, and have been highlighted by the European Civic Forum as positive models of meaningful dialogue.

I draw the committee's attention to EU Presidency opportunities in climate and biodiversity. Hosting the EU Presidency presents significant opportunities for Ireland to demonstrate leadership on climate and biodiversity. However, several developments at the EU level risk undermining progress. The European Commission is currently advancing a series of omnibus simplification proposals, ostensibly to streamline regulation. While regulatory efficiency is important, this process is being accompanied by a concerning deregulatory agenda, targeting recently adopted laws such as the corporate sustainability reporting directive and the corporate sustainability due diligence directive.

Particularly alarming is the fast-tracked decision-making model being used in these processes, which restricts scrutiny and may undermine democratic, evidence-based policy-making. Proposed changes to environmental regulations affecting agriculture along with potential reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy that could remove many of its environmental protections are of significant concern. So too are threats to key funding instruments, including the LIFE programme and Pillar 2 of the CAP, which are essential to biodiversity, climate resilience and civil society engagement.

Ireland has taken meaningful steps towards achieving the sustainable development goals but progress remains uneven and must be urgently accelerated if the 2030 targets are to be met. As Ireland prepares to assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, we face a critical opportunity to demonstrate leadership both domestically and at EU level. We thank the committee for its attention and welcome any questions or discussion.