Ms Meaghan Carmody:

No problem. I will point out one positive example from another country. The authorities in Finland - this is not currently the case in Ireland - have a national set of indicators that they update annually. These are analysed by experts. A progress report is developed. The Finnish Government submits this report to the Finnish Parliament, which gives feedback, and then there is a budgetary session to identify how the gaps can be remedied. At the end of every term, the Government has to report on SDG progress overall. There is no mandate for any Department here to report annually on its SDG progress at target level. That is another key gap.

In the context of interdepartmental work, the most recent minutes from the interdepartmental working group on the SDGs available online date from 2019. The group has met since, but the fact that there are no recent minutes shows the lack of resourcing. I am happy to send on some information to the committee.