Ms Sorcha Tunney:

I will reply briefly. Ms Lawlor could speak on this as well, given that she has had a significant number of meetings with them. The French have the Loi de Vigilanceand Germany has a supply chain law. Dr. Widdis can speak to this as well. Those countries are active at Council meetings. The German Government has just come out for civil liability. They are all taking parts of this directive – civil liability, stakeholder engagement and scope – and driving what it means for their respective countries. At this meeting, we are asking Ireland to examine what the directive means for businesses here and how we can implement it.

I was watching the European Parliament last week as it discussed this directive. There was a sense that the world was watching because, as Dr. Widdis pointed out, there are no global laws on this matter at the moment. The directive will be the first law under which it will be mandatory to undertake due diligence. The world is watching and Europe is leading. We are also involved in UN treaty work, where negotiations are happening next week. There is a great deal of movement in Europe and Ireland is falling a little behind.