Dr. Se?n Healy:

On the point about linking the SDGs to the budget and so on, there is already a model. Every year since the SDGs emerged, Social Justice Ireland has badged every item in its budget analysis on the day after the budget or in its budget choices analysis of the options facing Government some months before the budget. It has badged every single item with the relevant SDG. They are all in those documents.

To answer Deputy Smith’s question, we need a conversation, without a doubt, on the items she raised. We need more than a conversation; we need to recognise that Ireland’s social contract is broken and we have a serious challenge ahead of us. In reality, the policymaking process in Ireland has not been prepared to delve into the processes on which our society functions at the depth that is required. The nature of work is changing profoundly. We have not been prepared as a society, and certainly policymakers have not been prepared, to go beyond the paid job approach to work and recognise that there needs to be change there.

We have not got to grips with the issue of income distribution and income adequacy Ms Bennett talked about earlier.

The dismissal by the policymakers, on the basis of bogus evidence that has been produced, of moving towards some kind of basic income system is just another symptom of the refusal, in the context of the policy process, to face up to the need for a different kind of world, economy, society and participation. We reiterate that the traditional approach to participation is not sufficient. There is need for a real social dialogue. The current Government and those that preceded it have refused to engage in a comprehensive social dialogue, however. The Government is doing the traditional thing of only talking to the powerful in society, that is, employers, trade unions and, to a lesser extent, farmers. It does not talk to the community and voluntary sector in a serious and integrated way that would encompass all policy, nor does it talk to the environmental pillar in the same space. Individual Ministers will from time to time talk to us on a one-to-one basis about their particular areas. However, what is always missing - we have been calling for it and suggesting ideas about how it can be done - is the idea of integrating all of them, putting them into a coherent whole and recognising that they are all part of an integrated system. There is a need for such an integrated system.