Ms Colette Bennett:

I thank Deputy Bruton for that question. In terms of where the SDGs fit into all of this, I note with interest the comment on there being 17 of them and trying to keep track of them all. It provides a framework and blueprint to show that all of these things are interrelated. There is a tension between the discussion around climate change and what needs to be done because some of what needs to be done can be quite expensive at a household level. Ms Carmody spoke earlier about the inadequacy of some of the SEAI grants. We have said before, they are effectively a wealth transfer because it is only those who have the capacity to pay the upfront costs associated with measures like retrofitting that can actually do it and then we socialise things such as carbon tax. That is not to say Social Justice Ireland is anti-carbon tax - we are not, but it is an inherently unfair process. I tend to quote colleagues in community law and mediation where there is an environmental justice team. They have done some research with focus groups and what is coming out of that is when it comes to a choice between the end of the world and the end of the month, people have to feed their kids, so it can be very difficult to get people to make change at an individual level that can have a broader knock-on effect. It is very important that we have drivers at governmental and institutional level who can make that change and ease the transition for people who are on low incomes. While the changes to the retrofitting programmes that were brought in last year were very welcome, they still do not meet the needs of a majority of people. Those needs are in very stark relief now with the cost of living and the cost of energy.

Aside from that, as part of the report that we issued this year and last year, we looked at where the SDGs fit in with our national goals around our well-being indicators. We have 11 well-being domains, and we have targets to meet under all of those. The SDGs tie in quite nicely with all of those. By meeting our national targets, we could make progress towards our international targets. However, we are falling down in a number of areas. Again, in terms of there being no poverty, we have 671,000 people living below the poverty line, as of last year.

We have issues around sustainability in our food processes, energy and renewables. There is much that can be done in that context at a national and institutional level that would make a huge difference in terms of our progress towards the goals.