Mr. John McGeady:

Implementing an SDG assessment tool might take a little bit longer but at the point of simply tagging policy recommendations with SDGs they are intended to achieve, it could be done very quickly. We are beginning the process of planning for budget 2026 and ultimately, the budget day in October. It is absolutely possible that initial steps can be made in this budget cycle to look towards how Departments can identify how the budget line items they are looking for money for can link up with SDGs. Oireachtas committees like this one have a role also in looking at the Departments they are holding to account and how the policy recommendations from those Departments link in with the SDGs. That is at a policy coherence level.

At a more practical level and the practical policies Social Justice Ireland advocate for that can actually progress the various SDGs, there is a range of policy recommendations in the submission paper I shared with everybody and they are all tagged under the SDGs. They are also tagged against the 11 dimensions of the well-being framework, which sits in the Department of the Taoiseach. There is scope there for Departments and for Ministers and Ministers of State to look at what can be done there and for the Deputies and Senators as committee members to emphasise that.

As I said, I will share with the Chair our paper on delivering a just transition for Ireland, which lays out a whole range of policy options that can be embedded across all levels of policy to support a just transition. It is about ensuring that as we work towards our climate goals, we do so in a way that is socially progressive, ensuring those who are most vulnerable to the changes that are coming are given additional support. It is a question of bringing in the economic, the social and the environmental, rather than simply looking at this through one lens, which has been a challenge over many years. We have tended to look to do things in one area rather than taking a coherent view.