Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Apologies have been received from Deputy Ó Cathasaigh, the Leas-Chathaoirleach. Members who are participating in the meeting remotely are required to be within the precincts of the Leinster House complex only. I ask members and witnesses to please turn off their mobile phones or ensure that they are on silent mode. Will members participating remotely please use the raise-hand function on Teams if they wish to contribute?

We are meeting to discuss the implementation of the sustainable development goals, SDGs, at departmental level within the remit of this committee. As a country, Ireland is proud of the role it has played in the creation of the sustainable development goals through the work of our former ambassador, David Donoghue, who, together with the co-facilitator from Kenya, the ambassador, Mr. Macharia Kamau, convinced the global community to agree to the most ambitious set of commitments in UN history. While we secured the commitment of the global community, both individually and collectively, to sign up to these goals, we must now ensure that these objectives are fully implemented here at home. I was the first Minister with a specific responsibility for co-ordinating the implementation of the sustainable development goals across the whole of Government. In April 2018, I launched Ireland's first sustainable development goal national implementation plan, which was focused on raising public awareness and engagement and aligning Ireland's national policies with these goals.

The sustainable development goals are really about getting governments and society to think and act differently. It is not about ideology but about implementation in real and practical terms and breaking away from the old, siloed thinking that says a matter is someone else's problem or, worse, that a body does not have any solutions. We are now in an exciting point in the development of our country and we need to look to the future development of this as a big community, rather than a big economy. Delivering on the SDGs can help us to achieve the objective of developing our public service to think differently. The sustainable development goals are the responsibility of each and every one of us. The culture of saying "It not my job" will not work if we are to achieve our objectives. We must bring the public and key players such as NGOs with us if we are to deliver the sustainable development goals for all.

As I said, we are meeting to discuss the implementation of sustainable development goals from the perspective of the Departments of Social Protection and Rural and Community Development. I welcome representatives from the Department of Social Protection, Mr. Ciarán Lawler, assistant secretary, Ms Roshin Sen, chief analyst, and Mr. Paul Norris, assistant principal officer. From the Department of Rural and Community Development, I welcome Mr. J.P. Mulherin, assistant secretary general, and Ms Clodagh McDonnell, principal officer. They are all very welcome.

Before we start, I wish to explain some limitations to parliamentary privilege and to the practice of the Houses with regard to references witnesses may make to other persons in their evidence. The evidence of witnesses physically present or who give evidence from within the precincts is protected pursuant to both the Constitution and statute by absolute privilege. Witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable, or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if witnesses' statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that they comply with any such direction.

Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the House or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

I now call Mr. Lawler to make his opening statement.

Mr. Ciar?n Lawler:

I thank members of the committee for the invitation to attend to discuss the Department’s progress on the implementation of the sustainable development goals. I am the assistant secretary of the Department of Social Protection with responsibility for corporate affairs. I am joined by my colleague, Ms Roshin Sen, who is the Department’s chief analyst and representative on the senior officials group on the sustainable development goals. I am also joined by Mr. Paul Norris, who is the assistant principal with responsibility for the social inclusion division and is the Department's representative on the sustainable development goals interdepartmental working group.

As noted in the briefing provided to members, in 2015, all United Nations member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the focus of which is the 17 sustainable development goals and their 169 targets. In Ireland, a whole-of-government approach has been adopted for implementation of the SDGs, with each Minister having specific responsibility for implementing individual SDG targets related to their ministerial functions.

The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has overall responsibility for promoting the SDGs and overseeing their coherent implementation across the Government, including the development of the national implementation plans and reporting frameworks. I now will hand over to my colleague, Ms Roshin Sen, who will speak to the committee about the Department of Social Protection’s role in relation to the SDGs.

Ms Roshin Sen:

As noted in the briefing, the National Implementation Plan for the Sustainable Development Goals 2022-2024 was published on www.gov.ie in October 2022. A policy map was also published that sets out which Department leads on the delivery of each of the 169 targets. The Department of Social Protection is identified as the lead Department in relation to five specific targets under three separate goals. I propose to provide a brief update on progress on the implementation of each of these five targets.

Under goal 1, which relates to poverty, the Department leads on targets 1.2 and 1.3. The official source of poverty statistics in Ireland is the survey on income and living conditions, SILC. The 2022 survey results were released just last week. Target 1.2 relates to reducing poverty as nationally defined. In Ireland, the national social target for poverty reduction is to reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less. Consistent poverty is a measure that combines those who are both at risk of poverty and experiencing material deprivation. In the 2020 survey, the rate of consistent poverty was 4.7%. This reduced to 4% in the 2021 survey and increased to 5.3% in the 2022 survey. While it is disappointing to see this increase in the consistent poverty rate, as it had been steadily declining since it peaked at 9% in the 2013 survey, some caution must be exercised in interpreting the figure as it is based on 2021 income, a period when the Covid pandemic had a significant impact on incomes. In addition, the impact of budget 2022 and budget 2023 measures are not reflected in the income data. The full impact of the pandemic will not wash through the SILC data until the 2024 survey.

Target 1.3 relates to implementing social protection systems with substantial coverage of the poor and vulnerable. Ireland continues to have one of the most effective systems of social transfers in the EU for poverty prevention. In the 2022 survey, the at risk of poverty rate before social transfers would have been 36.5%. After social transfers, it was 13.1%, which is a poverty reduction impact of 64%. It is important to note that the proportion of the population at risk of poverty in the 2020 survey, which is based on pre-pandemic 2019 incomes, was 13.2%. Accordingly, the at risk of poverty rate was broadly the same in 2021 as in 2019, despite the significant adverse impacts of the pandemic and the consequent large-scale disruptions to businesses and employment.

Under goal 10, the Department is responsible for target 10.1, which is to increase the incomes of the bottom 40% of the population at a higher rate than the national average. In this regard, looking at the SILC data and as outlined in the briefing, there has been progress on this target. The average weekly equivalised income at the fourth decile increased by 8.8% from the 2020 survey to 2022, which is higher than the national increase of 7.9% for the same period.

Shifting focus to goal 8, which relates to employment, the Department is the lead on target 8.6, which is to substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training. There was a sharp increase in this rate in 2020 with the onset of the pandemic. However, there has been a steep decline from the beginning of 2021, a trend that has continued. Ireland’s rate is now well below the European average standing at 6.8% and 8.4% at quarter 3 2022 for 15- to 24-year-olds and 15- to 29-year-olds, respectively.

The Department is also the co-lead on target 8.b on developing a youth employment strategy. Pathways to Work 2021–2025, which is the national employment services strategy, contains a number of commitments to support young people into training, education and employment, many of which have been delivered. The recent labour force survey released last week reports a youth unemployment rate of 9.1%, which is well below the pre-pandemic average of 12.5%. It is important to note that because unemployment is measured as the number of people unemployed as a percentage of the number of people active in the labour market, the unemployment rate of young people is generally about twice that of the working-age population, reflecting the high number of young people in education and, therefore, not available to work. This ratio is consistent over time and across countries.

Further information is set out in the briefing material provided to the committee earlier this week. My colleagues and I are happy to take any questions that members may have.

Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

Good morning everyone. I thank the Chair and committee members for the opportunity to appear before them to discuss the implementation of the sustainable development goals, SDGs, in the Department of Rural and Community Development. I am accompanied by Ms Clodagh McDonnell, whose team is responsible for facilitating and co-ordinating the implementation of the SDGs across the Department.

As the committee will be aware, the Department was founded in 2017 with a mission to promote rural and community development and to support vibrant, inclusive and sustainable communities throughout Ireland. We have been very cognisant of the context the SDGs provide for the work we do in the Department and of the need to integrate the SDGs into our policies and programmes. The Department’s statement of strategy includes a commitment to align our policies with the SDG national implementation plan and to place SDGs at the heart of our policies.

In meeting this objective, we have given specific consideration to the SDGs in our key policies. For example, each of the 150 or so policy measures in Our Rural Future, the national rural development policy, are aligned with one or more of the SDGs. The strategic objectives outlined in Ireland’s new national outdoor recreation strategy are also aligned with the SDGs. There are strong links with goals such as SDG 3, good health and well-being, and SDG 15, which focuses on the sustainable use of our natural resources. The SDGs are also mainstreamed into the national social enterprise policy. The implementation of this policy is opening new opportunities for social enterprises to address social and environmental challenges, and thereby contribute towards the SDGs, particularly SDG 8, decent work and economic growth. We are strongly of the view that social enterprises are inherently contributing to the sustainable development goal agenda.

The Department’s statement of strategy also commits us to work across government to strengthen and build understanding and capacity in the community and voluntary sector to support the delivery of the SDG national implementation plans. Our community and voluntary organisations are key drivers of positive social change in society. Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities: A Five-Year Strategy to Support the Community and Voluntary Sector in Ireland includes specific actions to build the understanding and awareness of the SDGs and to build the capacity of the sector to incorporate the SDGs into their operations. As part of the second SDG national implementation plan, the Department also has a key role to play in sectoral stakeholder engagement and specifically in community engagement. The plan includes a commitment to consult public participation networks, PPNs, to identify the tools required to support the integration of the SDGs into their work and to develop supports based on that. Indeed, much is already being done in this area; the national implementation plan includes a case study highlighting the work of Kerry PPN in raising awareness of the SDGs and integrating them into its work.

The Department is also contributing to the achievement of the SDGs across many of our other programmes and policies. For example, the Our Public Libraries strategy is an important contributor to goal 4, which is to "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all". In September 2022, an SDG week was held in libraries throughout the country to mark the anniversary of UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The town centre first policy provides a co-ordinated, whole-of-government policy framework to proactively address the decline in the health of towns throughout Ireland and support measures to regenerate and revitalise those towns. The policy has a focus on ensuring we plan for sustainable cities and communities in line with goal 11. Our work with marginalised and disadvantaged communities through the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, and other programmes, is making an important contribution to the 2030 agenda pledge to “leave no one behind”. The SDGs also form an integral part of theSuperValu Tidy Towns competition, which is administered by the Department of Rural and Community Development. The SDGs have been aligned to each of the eight competition categories and a specific SDG award was introduced for 2021, thus helping to build a practical understanding and awareness of the SDGs in almost 1,000 communities throughout the country.

I am conscious that my opening remarks represent a very brief overview of some of the key areas of intervention by the Department of Rural and Community Development. My colleague, Ms McDonnell, and I are, of course, very happy to answer any questions that members may have and to follow up in writing with any further detail that may be required afterwards.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the officials for their presentations. I made the point during my introductory remarks that the objective behind the SDGs and the whole-of-government approach we are taking in Ireland is to try to break down the silos where Departments are responsible for particular issues. The objective is to have that whole-of-government approach to delivery of the SDGs. There is a senior officials' group, but what other informal mechanisms are there for engagement between Departments to address the objectives set out? Specifically, I ask the officials, if they can, to give me a practical example of the engagement that takes place between the two Departments, the representatives of which are before us today. Both Departments are responsible to one Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and both have a responsibility to help deliver SDG 8. What type of informal mechanisms are there between the two Departments in delivering on that particular objective? Who wants to come in first on that?

Ms Roshin Sen:

On the extent of engagement with other Departments on the SDGs more broadly, the two main strategies we are implementing within the Department are cross-departmental or whole-of-government strategies, including the Roadmap for Social Inclusion and Pathways to Work. Both have mechanisms for oversight that are interdepartmental and include external stakeholders. For instance, the Roadmap for Social Inclusion includes all Departments that have targets. We also have three community and volunteer representatives: the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the Vincentian Minimum Essential Standard of Living, MESL, Research Centre and the European Anti-Poverty Network. They provide external oversight. On the roadmap and its link to the SDGs, an annual progress report and report card are produced each year where each of the commitments are aligned with the relevant SDG. That connection is visible in the report card and we are conscious of that.

Similarly, Pathways to Work includes a reference and acknowledgement of how it works to implement SDG 8. That has external oversight through the labour market advisory council, which, again, is interdepartmental. People from the relevant Departments that have made commitments are on the council, in addition to people from employer representative groups, trade unions and the community and voluntary sector, including the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed and the National Youth Council of Ireland. Through that, we have many interconnections between different Departments and relevant external stakeholders in the implementation of SDGs, as well as the connection.

I will also mention that as part of the co-ordinating work done by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, it has provided each Department with a policy mapping tool, allowing them to look at the national strategies to make sure we make a connection between the SDGs and the national strategy. That policy mapping is being undertaken by all Departments with national strategies.

That then allows us to see how the sustainable development goals are being implemented across Government by the different national strategies at a central level, and to then be able to see where there are gaps in implementation as well. The Department of Rural and Community Development is also on the roadmap for social inclusion steering group.

Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

On delivery across Government, there is a range of strategies that I mentioned in my opening statement such as Our Rural Future, the Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities strategy, and the national volunteering strategy. There are oversight mechanisms for all of those policies across Government and many of them include external stakeholders as well. There is quite a lot of collaboration across Government on each of these policy measures. We have been cognisant, in developing the actions as part of these policies, of the need to align them with the sustainable development goals in order that when we engage with other Departments on the actions for which they may be responsible, there is a clear link back to the sustainable development goals. There was a question about practical implementation. One small example would be on the Tidy Towns competition. We have engaged quite heavily with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications on how we deliver that competition in a way that recognises the importance of the sustainable development goals and as part of that competition, we linked all of the different themes with the sustainable development goals. Our colleagues in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications have taken part in webinars that engaged with Tidy Towns groups to explain the SDGs to the Tidy Towns groups and they sponsored one of the awards under the Tidy Towns competition. That is happening right across the different areas we are involved in.

We spoke about the library strategy as part of my opening statement. The SDG week in the libraries involved ourselves, the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, across local authorities, and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, so there is a range of different organisations coming together to try to make a difference in how the SDGs are delivered. I would say there is quite a lot of collaboration across Government on the delivery of the goals.

Ms Clodagh McDonnell:

Just to add to what to Mr. Mulherin has said, we obviously work centrally with our colleagues across Government and we are represented on various groups centrally. For us really it is about where the top-down meets bottom-up as regards structures locally. The Department of Rural and Community Development works very closely with local government and local authorities around the local community development committees and the public participation networks. Our colleagues in the Department of Social Protection are very well represented locally on those structures and feed into them. It is about first, creating awareness of the sustainable development goals and essentially working with our colleagues and collaborating on the ground, as well as obviously taking our lead from the centre and working centrally. The local community development committees are key here. As Mr. Mulherin said, local authorities and local libraries have been really strong and progressive in implementing actions to create awareness. For instance, libraries are different to when we went to them as children. They are much more inclusive, welcoming and inviting in terms of what they are doing and of promoting the sustainable development goals and other actions. There is a lot happening and a lot of progress has been made. We are on a journey here and I think colleagues would agree in relation to this.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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Does Deputy Kerrane wish to make a contribution?

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses for their opening statements and briefing documentation they sent as well. Regarding the Department of Social Protection, obviously poverty and tackling and ultimately ending poverty is key and the Department of Social Protection would have the main role as I see it in reducing and ultimately ending poverty in Ireland. It may not be, but is it possible to get an update on the recommendations in the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025, which was just mentioned? We are quickly approaching 2025. It is important to say that a lot of the time, we are told that poverty is reducing and SILC data are used to back that up. A lot of the time the overall consistent poverty rate is used and is sometimes said to be reducing. It is important to also note that consistent poverty is not reducing when it comes to one-parent families and particularly those who are out of work due to illness or disability. In fact, consistent poverty rates are rising there and it is important we acknowledge that when we say that overall consistent poverty is reducing when for key parts of our communities, it is not.

The other key role for the Department of Social Protection in ending poverty is obviously the social welfare rates. Whatever way we look at it as regards the positivity of social transfers the bottom line is that every single rate is set below the poverty line. We know that from the work of the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice, and the MESL, as was also referenced earlier. I believe as part of meeting these goals that we need to look at basing our social welfare rates on something or against something. At the moment that does not exist and when the budget comes there is a circus in the outside world about a fiver and maybe not a fiver and all of that. It is not evidence-based and key to reaching and attaining that goal is to have social welfare rates set to the minimum essential standard of living. That gives certainty to people who are on fixed rates and there will not be this circus every year ahead of budget time. I ask the Department, in line with achieving these goals, to look at the possibility of benchmarking the rates to anything really. I would prefer to see it benchmarked to the MESL but I think that will be really important in meeting our targets.

Regarding unemployment and the challenge for young people in particular, it was said that there was a number of commitments to support young people into training, education and employment. If young people are left on €129 per week, that in itself is a barrier to actually accessing education, training or a job and research shows that because it costs money to go out to seek work. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to bring that back so the rate is not dependent on age essentially, and again I ask the Department for Social Protection to look at that because the commitment is in the programme for Government but there is very little movement on it. I do not believe the goal will be achieved while young jobseekers are on reduced rates.

Lastly, to the Department of Community and Rural Development, I note from its opening statement it does not mention the islands or at least I do not think it did. Comhdháil Oileán na hÉireann sent some documentation to the committee which is really useful and I hope might be passed on to the Department. I presume the sustainable development goals will be a pillar in the new ten-year strategy for the islands and it would be really helpful were the Department of Community and Rural Development in a position to give an update on that, as it is long-awaited.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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Who wishes to start off? Perhaps Ms Sen?

Ms Roshin Sen:

I thank the Acting Chair and the Deputy. There are a good few questions there so I will work my way through them. In terms of the update on the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 and its progress on implementation, we publish a progress report annually. There are 66 unique targets within the roadmap under seven distinct strands. Looking at the end of 2022, 37 of the roadmap commitments were achieved fully or achieved with ongoing delivery. A further three were in progress, on schedule with ongoing delivery, 27 are in progress and work on the final two was to begin in early 2023. Also to note we are doing a mid-term review of the roadmap as well. We undertook a public consultation last year and did a review of the indicators and we are finalising and pulling that together now. That is examining the progress in the implementation and the appropriateness of the indicators and recognises the changed context since the roadmap was published in January 2020.

I absolutely take the Deputy's point in terms of the differing rates of poverty for different groups and there are a number of groups who have much higher rates of consistent poverty than others and that includes people with disabilities and lone parents. Within that, there are a number of different measures, both within the roadmap for social inclusion and pathways to work in order to reduce this. This works in a number of different ways. Part of it is income supports of course but there is also a need to improve services. For instance, one of the commitments within the roadmap for social inclusion was to commission a report into the cost of disability and looking at that, it can be seen there is a requirement for services as well as for income and that is being progressed through the national disability inclusion strategy steering group. What we can see also, when we look at the minimum essential standard of living, is that when improvements are made to services, then the amount of money a household needs then reduces so that has a real impact.

We are also conscious that employment is the best route out of poverty where it is appropriate and possible. Consequently, the Department is also undertaking a number of different measures to help improve employment outcomes.

We have made changes to the earnings disregards for people in receipt of disability allowance and the lone-parent payments. For people with disabilities we have rolled out early engagement on a voluntary basis with the public employment services for young recipients of disability allowance. That ensures that young people who would like to take up training or enter employment are aware that they can engage with the public employment services to seek help there. Work is ongoing on a number of different fronts to improve the poverty rates for those groups.

Deputy Kerrane also talked about social welfare rates and benchmarking.

Mr. Ciar?n Lawler:

The Deputy will be aware that benchmarking and indexation of social welfare payments have been looked at on numerous occasions over many decades, going back to the Commission on Social Welfare in 1986. The social welfare benchmarking indexation group in 2001 recommended some indexing or benchmarking of rates, whether benchmarked to earnings, indexed to inflation or whatever else. The focus in recent years has been very much on State pensions and their benchmarking and indexation. The Government decided last September, in response to the Commission on Pensions, that a smoothed earnings approach set at a benchmark of 34% of regular earnings would be introduced as an annual input to the budgetary process every year. That is beginning this year. That is my response in respect of pensions.

We also have a commitment to consider working-age payments generally. Work has begun on that in the Department. Working-age payments are far more complex, given the range of rates of payments and the different contingencies involved. As I said, the Department is looking at that this year, and the minimum essential standard of living will be looked at as part of that work.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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Do you need to come back in again, Ms Sen? Please do.

Ms Roshin Sen:

Yes. I wanted to reply to the question Deputy Kerrane asked about young people's jobseeker rates. It should be noted that when a young person participates in training or education, the rate increases. The reduced rates apply only where somebody is not participating in training or education or an employment programme. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to improve the rates. When the increase in the rates applied in the case of the most recent budget, the full €12 rate increase was applied to the young people's rate, whereas, ordinarily, a proportionate rate would apply. The gap is therefore lessening and there has been improvement to the rates in that regard.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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Are you happy with that response, Deputy?

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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It was very vague, but yes.

Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

There was a specific question from Deputy Kerrane about the island communities. I have not seen the paper from Comhdháil Oileáin na hÉireann to which she referred but I would be very interested to see it, if she would like to pass it on. She asked about the islands strategy. The SDGs will be mainstreamed into the islands strategy. The strategy is in the final stages of preparation. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, was asked about it in the Dáil last week and gave a commitment, I think, to have the strategy finalised over the next two months. Speaking to the point Deputy Naughten made, the final stages of engagement across different Departments to finalise the actions are taking place at the moment. As I said, in the next two months there should be a finalised document. Furthermore, the communities on the islands are involved in the local participatory structures my colleague, Ms McDonnell, mentioned, that is, the local community development committees, LCDCs, and public participation networks, PPNs, and there is involvement through local development companies. They are involved in those structures in the same way other organisations and communities throughout the country are.

Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)
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I welcome and thank all the witnesses for their opening statements. Mr. Mulherin gave a practical example of how the Department of Rural and Community Development is liaising with the Tidy Towns committees in every county throughout the country. Has there been any communication with the Department of Education on schoolbooks? I think the Department changed the curriculum such that it would not be possible for schoolbooks to be used by oncoming classes. I would not think that is very sustainable. There were probably other issues with the Department of Education such as maybe the recycling of school uniforms or their reuse in some cases. Was there any interaction between the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Education on issues like that?

Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

I can come in first on the schoolbooks. That is the responsibility of the Department of Education. I am not aware of our Department having engaged with that Department on that directly, nor do I think the libraries would have a particularly direct role in the schoolbooks provided to educational establishments. It is not something that cuts across the remit of this Department, at least.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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I have an email from Coalition 2030, which is an alliance of 70 civil society organisations and networks looking at the environmental, domestic, anti-poverty, equality and trade union sectors of society. The coalition has a couple of questions it would like me to put to the witnesses. How are their Departments designing policy to reach the furthest behind first, in line with a key principle of the sustainable development goals? What strengths and weaknesses in SDG implementation have the Departments identified during 2022 and 2023? What will they do to maintain the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses? Lastly, can the witnesses clearly articulate how far away we are from reaching SDG targets for which their Departments have lead responsibility?

Ms Roshin Sen:

Designing policy to reach the furthest behind is the primary focus of the roadmap for social inclusion because that is aimed at making Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU and reducing consistent poverty to 2%. The focus there is very much on looking at different strands, including older people, families and communities, to be able to see what actions would be necessary to make sure that people can participate fully in society. That is the primary focus of the roadmap in its thinking. As part of the mid-term review, we have asked people in the public consultation, and are ourselves considering, what the key issues on which we need to focus are.

As to what we will implement in the coming years, we are doing a mid-term review at the moment. That looks at what the priority is over the next two years and the lifetime of the roadmap out to 2025. That is very much at the forefront of our thinking at the moment. Similarly, within Pathways to Work there is a specific strand called "Working for All - Leaving No One Behind", which is also the theme of Ireland's voluntary national review of the sustainable development goals. That looks at particular groups that we know are under-represented in the labour market and face disadvantage in trying to access and to sustain employment. The review has a number of different actions in respect of young people - at the time Pathways to Work was being developed, the youth unemployment rate was extremely high as a consequence of the pandemic - as well as members of the Traveller community, lone parents and people with disabilities, so there are a number of different actions there. There are also people who could be experiencing discrimination.

Similarly, we are also doing a mid-term review of Pathways to Work. The public consultation on that is open at the moment until the end of March. We asked people specifically about looking at these groups who are under-represented and face disadvantage. We asked people if they had suggestions for actions that could help support people into employment. That is another one of the key focuses of Pathways to Work. One of its aims was to help people recover as we recovered from the pandemic and to get back into work, but there are also those people who were already experiencing disadvantage.

As for maintaining strengths, the format of Pathways to Work looks holistically at the overall public employment services and employment services across government. It looks at the supports available to jobseekers to improve the public employment services. Pathways to Work has been operating for a number of years now, and this is the latest iteration of the strategy. We are always refining and improving what we can do in respect of the public employment services. We also look at how we work with employers to encourage the recruitment of people who are more disadvantaged in the labour market and to make them aware of the various supports that are available to take on people they might otherwise not consider employing. We also look at the welfare system as a whole to make sure that it pays for people to work and that they will be better off. We also make sure that the work we do is evidence-based. We therefore have a number of different strands, including the "Working for All" strand. The systems we have in place have proven to be very effective so far, but we are always refining them over time.

Progress is being made on the SDG targets for which we are responsible. A European semester country report was published last year which looked at all the different EU member states and how they are performing. I think it was published at the end of the year. On each of the SDGs for which we have responsibility, namely, SDG 1 on poverty, SDG 8 on employment and SDG 10 on income inequality, we are performing above the EU average and making good progress.

Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

On reaching those furthest behind, the sustainable, inclusive and empowered community strategy overseen by the Department of Rural and Community Development has that as a particular focus. Only in the past month, the Department has been working with stakeholders to develop a guide to inclusive community engagement in planning and decision-making. It has been working with organisations to identify best practice in terms of engaging with marginalised communities. A number of pilot projects are ongoing in four local authority areas dealing with particular issues around Travellers, older people and LGBTQ+ people. What we learn from that will feed back into the guidance that is provided.

More specifically, the Deputy will be aware of programmes such as the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, which is Ireland's primary social inclusion funding intervention. It is delivered through local development companies and the local community development committees. It has two particular targets. One is to support communities and disadvantaged communities in particular, and the other is to support individuals who have been identified as being in need of opportunities to improve their life chances. SICAP is working with disadvantaged children and families and disadvantaged young people. There are 13 different target groups and €46 million was invested in the programme last year. In excess of 30,000 people and almost 3,000 communities were supported through that. There are other smaller programmes with which the Deputy will be familiar such as the community development pilot programme, which is targeted very specifically at seven marginalised communities throughout the country, again to try to learn best practice with the intention of rolling it out to other areas. Different initiatives are ongoing.

Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
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I thank the Department. With all the stuff we have been dealing with, it has done very successful work. There have been increases in social welfare payments, fuel allowance and the living alone allowance. I see a lot of funding coming to community and voluntary groups in my county. I cannot keep up with the demand for help to fill out forms for funding because there is so much available at the moment for community and social development, so I thank the Department for that. Especially for towns in Clare where there are Ukrainians, huge sum of money are available through SICAP and other organisations. Our towns will be better off because of the new infrastructure for which we can get funding. I am very grateful for all that.

Are any or all of the sustainable development goals considered when the Department puts funding together? I do not know if it is fair to say the Department is only responsible for three of them. The idea was that the SDGs would be taken into account by all Departments. I do not see them mentioned in applications. Is that something we could look at to embed them more so that some of the SDGs are always being dealt with when we allocate funding? Is any mechanism in place for officials to examine new policy proposals through an SDG lens and to identify how policies are advancing Agenda 2030 or, conversely, possibly undermining SDG progress?

Where has there been progress in advancing the SDG and Agenda 2030 within the Department? Is there a way of measuring this progress? Is the Department using the indicators provided in the SDG framework? A number of countries, including Finland and Denmark, have developed SDG indicators relevant to their national context. Is this something the Department is considering? The Department is brilliant but it cannot continue as business as usual because we have this commitment to the SDG now. If we have that commitment, how do we implement it, measure it and make sure we are engaging with it fully?

No one has mentioned the huge issue around climate that we face in communities and rural areas. What I see from severe weather patterns in the past is that all the resources needed to help people who live in vulnerable areas in rural areas is put into the cities and towns. Friends and others who work in Civil Defence say they often have a hard time getting into the town or city to locate the resources that are needed to go back out to the country to help people who are trapped by flooding or snow. This is something we will face more and more. I would like to see the Department thinking in that way about the climate emergency and the severe weather patterns. These kinds of events will be happening more often. Will the Department alleviate some of my fears around this?

Ms Roshin Sen:

On grant funding, the Department of Rural and Community Development probably does more on that side than we do. We do offer a limited amount of grants which we operate. One is under social inclusion initiatives. We do events promoting the UN day for the eradication of poverty which is linked to the SDG for ending poverty. In that case, we provide funding for organisations that are promoting awareness of poverty issues. That is one area where we have grants that are working with SDGs.

The SDG around ending and reducing poverty is very much embedded in the work of everything and anything we do in the Department. In any policy work we do or any considerations we have around reform or change, we always look at their poverty impact. We have mechanisms in place, between using the ESRI’s microsimulation tax and welfare model, to see what impacts it would have in terms of distributional impact assessments. Looking at the poverty impact assessments of policies is embedded in the Department’s work and across Departments. For that SDG of ending poverty, we are very much aware of that mindset. Similarly, around promoting employment, any time there is policy reform, consideration is given to its impact on competitiveness and on work incentives. Those are things we are very much aware of when thinking about policy.

On the SDG indicators, there are some which the EU looks at for the different goals. Target 1.2 relates to the national target, and for Ireland, the main national target in relation to poverty reduction is consistent poverty. We do have other targets in the Roadmap for Social Inclusion. In the national implementation plan for 2022 to 2024, we will look to see if there are other targets we can look at specifically for the SDGs.

The Senator spoke about climate and communities. Something I had not mentioned is that the Department operates the humanitarian assistance programme. Where a household is impacted by something like flooding, which could be something related to climate change, the Department offers services and comes in with immediate help and help with any longstanding issues to their house as a consequence of any climate related issue.

Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

Those are very interesting points about trying to link the SDGs to the application processes we have. Where we see it happening at a local level is very much driven by the local economic community plans that are developed by the local community development committees. As part of the planning process at a local level, there is focus under the guidelines to link those plans to the SDGs. As groups are making applications under various funding proposals, there is always the onus to link it back to the local economic and community plan so that the projects we are funding are based in that planning process.

There is that direct link back. There are more specific examples as well. For instance, the Tidy Towns grant that we give to Tidy Towns groups around the country has a very specific reference to try to deliver on the sustainable development goals, SDGs. Perhaps there is more we can do to mention the SDGs directly in our application process.

We are very cognisant of climate change as part of the delivery of the Our Rural Future policy. There are a number of recommendations that are linked to the cross-government response which are linked to climate change. Last year, there was a rural ideas forum where we brought stakeholders together to look at how climate change is impacting on rural communities and we looked at things that need to be done to try to address that. As part of the new Town Centres First policy that was launched last year, there was a commitment within that to look at developing toolkits to assist towns and to address issues that are being brought to bear as a result of climate change.

More specifically, there is funding available for communities to address these issues. For example, the leader programme has a team that is very directly linked with the environment and with climate change. Another programme we deliver, which the committee may be familiar with, is the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme. There is a requirement there for organisations that are seeking funding to look at biodiversity measures that could be put in place as part of any changes introduced on walking trails or mountain pathways that may be funded under that programme.

The Senator also mentioned the development of new policy. It is clear across the Department that the sustainable development goals are very much front and centre in the policies that have been developed within the Department. As I mentioned at the outset, there is a clear link in Our Rural Future, for example, between each of the actions and each of the sustainable development goals. For us that is the starting point but it is a very important mechanism for us to be able to link back and when we are measuring the outcome from that policy we can link the actions directly back to the SDGs so we can see what has been achieved.

A policy we are developing within the Department at the moment is the second national social enterprise policy. For us, social enterprises are very much inherently delivering on the sustainable development goals given their social and environmental objectives. There is lots of discussion happening at the moment about how the SDGs will inform the development of that policy. Even at an international level, the Department has been party to discussions at OECD level around how social enterprises and the social economy can contribute to the development of the SDGs. A statement has been developed along those lines, to which Ireland contributed, to try to bring that focus to social enterprise and the role they can play in delivering on the sustainable development goals. Hopefully this addresses at least some of the Senator's questions.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank Mr. Mulherin. Perhaps you might furnish the committee with a copy of that statement, if you would not mind. Before I bring Senator Garvey back in, I wish to say that from my own experience of engaging with Tidy Towns, the provision for biodiversity has had a powerful impact right across the State. This is not just visible with areas being co-ordinated, but even with the thinking within Tidy Towns. If it was possible to incorporate the broader themes of the sustainable development goals into the Tidy Towns, and letting the communities themselves come up with the linkages, this could help to really embed that whole concept in community across the country. I am aware that the Department is doing this but perhaps it might look again at how we could incorporate it to a greater extent in the Tidy Towns programme.

Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

To come back on that point, the committee might be aware that we are already doing that. Eight different areas within the competition are directly linked to the sustainable development goals that are there. More broadly, to try to build that understanding there is a monthly newsletter that goes to each of the 1,000 or so Tidy Towns groups. In nearly every one of those newsletters each month there are examples of work that has been done throughout different communities demonstrating how that work is directly linking back to the sustainable development goals. I agree with the Chair and we have had discussions ourselves internally. The Tidy Towns brand is so well known but it really is a sustainability competition. The work that communities are doing in villages and towns throughout the country is amazing.

I take the Chair's point. It is something we are very conscious of and it something we continue to build on. We will try and explore it as much as we can to further build it into the competition.

Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
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That was one of the points I was making. When we talk about grants and funding, I believe that the SDGs must be more clearly embedded so that people can see the links. I know that Mr. Mulherin is saying that subtly all the funding is covering the SDGs, but if we want people to clearly understand the SDGs then it might be better to have the sustainable development goals embedded in the wording, whether it is a Tidy Towns grant or a community grant, and that there would be extra marks for ticking the boxes so the more SDGs covered in a project the better. I must be very clear that not everybody reads newsletters.

The Tidy Towns programme is amazing but we still have a lot of Tidy Towns groups that are very happy to have everything very neat and uniform, and there is a fear of biodiversity and a fear of letting things be. I have worked with a lot of them and many have realised that they actually save money and save maintenance in voluntary hours if they do go down the native flowers and native trees path. Maybe there is still a bit more work to be done in that regard. I am aware that overall there are marks for those kinds of things but I would not assume that every Tidy Towns group would get that because we still see many manicured flowers put into neat rows of tens and twenties and they are not even native flowers or perennials. A big thing for me is to get perennials down because then they are down for life. It saves the group having to have loads of volunteers.

It would also be good to see the indicators. Ms Sen spoke of measures to combat poverty, which there before we ever had the sustainable development goals: this whole Department is about getting people out of poverty. I was talking in a broader scale. We have 17 sustainable development goals, but we do have a climate and biodiversity emergency that will affect the most vulnerable in rural communities. We need to put a stronger emphasis on it. I do not believe we can leave it to the local community development committees. I am sorry but I have spoken with some CEOs and when one asks them about biodiversity they say "Oh I hate them dandelions", and that is it. We do want it to be bottom-up, as the Cathaoirleach has said. It must be put into the applications for the funding because a lot of people do care on the ground. There is huge work being done about Japanese knotweed, for example, but I do believe that we need more top-down stuff as well. If the funding is coming from the top we must have a much clearer association whereby the more a project is embracing the sustainable development goals as a community then the better chance it has of winning awards and getting funding. That is of paramount importance.

Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

This is something we will take away from this discussion this morning, to maybe think a little bit more about how the sustainable development goals are built more broadly into the application processes that we have, in a way that assists communities to understand how the SDGs are delivering through any project they are applying for.

I take the Senator's point on the Tidy Towns. There is that desire to have everything looking pretty, but to be fair to the competition itself there is a very clear focus under themes such as biodiversity and sustainability around the broader aspect of biodiversity and sustainable development within the towns. As part of that, at the end of the competition every year, each Tidy Towns group receives its adjudicator report. The adjudicators are very mindful when going back to groups to try to encourage them and to identify areas they could improve in biodiversity and sustainability. To their credit, and it is clear to see around the country, the groups are certainly embracing that as part of their work within their towns and villages.

Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
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What I see in some cases is a little bit of tokenism. People might say that it is lovely to see that little bit there which is for the bees and the birds, but then everything else is manicured and sprayed with Roundup. We must up the game as soon as possible where everything is done for biodiversity. It does not mean that it goes crazy and wild like the Serengeti, which is what some people would think. There is a lack of understanding there. Biodiversity does not mean crazy and rotten looking with nettles and weeds. There is a lot of work to be done on that. I do see little boxed-off areas where there is one little roundabout or one little patch for biodiversity and a little sign that says that this is for the bees, when the rest of it is all manicured. As a Department, we must have higher expectations and as soon as possible. It is of paramount importance. If we do not get biodiversity right in our villages and towns then we do not have pollinators to enable us to grow food in the fields. We need to up our game and expect to see this everywhere. This is something I brought up in the programme for Government when we held our negotiations with the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, and the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Calleary. I remember specifically getting the word "biodiversity" embedded into the Tidy Towns programme, but not just as a part, it was to be overarching.

We should not be funding plants, foreign species and things that are not native to the area and that will not enhance our pollinators. It is important and it is an easy win. It is an easy thing to expect people to do.

Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

I take the Senator’s point. The biodiversity measures vary on the basis of towns and villages. We have to remember that it is a voluntary competition. Those who are delivering this are all volunteers.

Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
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Yes, but there is less work involved if they go with biodiversity.

Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

Huge strides have been made, but the Senator is right. There is journey for all communities to do more in terms of biodiversity. We are conscious of that. That is clear from all of the communications relating to the competition. As the Senator stated, it is something we will continue to work on and support as much as we can.

Ms Clodagh McDonnell:

We worked with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications on this in the context of building the SDGs into the Tidy Towns awards process. There is a bit more work to do on that to develop the SDG special awards. The matter is in hand, and some work has already been done. Obviously, there is more to do. I thank the Senator for her well-made points.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank officials from the Departments of Social Protection and Rural and Community Development for their constructive and positive engagement with the meeting. That concludes the committee’s business in public session for today. I propose that we go into private session to consider other business.