Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I thank Ms Gilmartin. I have two further questions coming from that. It was mentioned by representatives of Chambers Ireland, who gave the example of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine selecting five SDGs to concentrate on, that they felt those five SDGs were not that relevant to that Department, such that it was essentially a "tick box" exercise. There is a concern that this can happen if the Department has autonomy over which sustainable development goals it pursues.

What kind of controls are being put in place to ensure that does not happen? My second question is on a matter Senator Higgins may come to in her contribution. It relates to the regulatory impact assessments that were brought up in the earlier meeting. How do we check policy decisions against the sustainable development goals, SDGs? Earlier, Senator Higgins gave the example of bottom trawling, which is in the news at the moment. There is an SDG that clearly says we should not be doing this yet it is being sanctioned by the Department.