Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade
Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights at the United Nations: Discussion
2:00 am
Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
I have time for just one brief question. This has been very useful and it is important that momentum continues behind it, but it occurs to me that in many instances the human rights abuses might be five or six companies downstream from the big well-known corporation that has a shiny brochure with corporate social responsibility and so on. That corporation might subcontract to another company, which subcontracts to another company that procures material from another company that is involved in exploitative practices. Maybe the treaty already addresses that, but I imagine companies deliberately insulate themselves at times.
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