Mr. John McGeady:

I will just chime in on what Mr. Coghlan has said. I am in agreement. Deputy Seán Crowe made a point regarding the conspiracy idea in respect of the SDGs. That is sometimes part of the problem. There is an idea that there is a large, overarching and Machiavellian vision from globalists to control things. We need to get down to a much simpler level and recognise that they are ultimately simply a policy tool. In the same way as at the European Union level, there is an opportunity to embed them as a policymaking tool at the county council level. I am repeating myself, but impact assessments should be carried out to see what impacts any given policy initiative or project would have across the 17 SDGs. There may be no impact on some but we should see where such initiatives and projects would have positive impacts or negative impacts and what additional steps could be taken to mitigate the negative impacts or to enhance the positive impacts. Treating the SDGs as a practical and reasonable policy tool and as simply a matrix to assist policymaking and implementation is the way to go at the local authority level. As Mr. Coghlan has said, we should take a step back from the large abstract view of what they are even though we should not underestimate how great an achievement it was at the UN level to achieve a consensus to back these 17 goals and the various targets that underlie them.

However, ultimately we should take a much more practical view on how to use them.