Ms Meaghan Carmody:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. I will answer his fifth one on Ireland's role in what has been described as the centre point of 2023 by the UN Secretary-General. In terms of what we can influence, we can be honest about how we are doing on the SDGs. For many countries at the high-level political forum, it has been described as a postcard. They only showcase what they are doing well. We must be really honest about how far we need to go to reach some of the targets and what we plan to do to get there and involve people in that conversation - public participation has been mentioned a few times - so that we can showcase the commitment to being honest and having integrity.

We could have a Dáil debate. Members have a very particular role, as the Deputy said. What needs to happen before the high-level political forum is that there needs to be a debate in both Houses of the Oireachtas on where we are in terms of the SDGs. As an outcome of this meeting, we would like the committee to take that forward and to write to the relevant Ministers and departmental officials around the issues raised today.

There is also the example of Finland. It would be fantastic if Ireland could commit to the type of policy process I outlined earlier and to potentially ask a member of the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development to come before the committee to speak about that governance architecture. They are an example of a few of the things that could be done.