Ms June Tinsley:

I thank the Cathaoirleach for the opportunity to present to the committee today. We represent Business in the Community Ireland. Our purpose is to inspire and enable businesses to bring about a sustainable, low-carbon economy and an inclusive society where everyone thrives. Our team of expert advisers partner with our 120 member companies to design and deliver across the economic, environment, social and governance, EESG, dimensions of sustainability. We advise and support companies and engage in collective action to drive change.

Sustainability is now firmly at the top of the business agenda. There is far greater awareness of the role business has to play in tackling the climate and nature crisis and eliminating social inequality. Many stakeholders, public and private, acknowledge that embracing sustainability practices will support long-term economic competitiveness and social stability.

However, action is still slow. Within our network, there are still some common challenges facing businesses. These include: the nature and climate twin crises. The Irish Wildlife Trust stated that "the link between biodiversity loss and climate change is such they can be seen as one issue: one driving the other, both rooted in our patterns of consumption. But each supporting the other in recovery".

As our low-carbon pledge signatories, which is about 70 companies, can attest, businesses are aware of the need to decarbonise their operations with some making significant strides in this area, setting science-based targets, reassessing their supply chain, etc. This pledge is also referenced in the Government’s Climate Action Plan but less focus has been on the impact of business on nature.

The recently published national biodiversity action plan is welcomed but greater awareness of this plan is required beyond those actively involved in the nature positive space. This will help lead to greater public engagement and the required behaviour change.

The biggest challenge for businesses is to upskill themselves on the impact their own operations have on nature so they can take targeted action to remedy and improve their activities. This also includes having a full understanding of their supply chain and their impact on nature and being able to take decisive action that will not compromise their economic viability.

Our recommendation is for the Government to provide financial support and training resources to ensure businesses, including SMEs, can proactively play a part in achieving a net zero and nature positive economy.

The second challenge is in relation to the social impact. Achieving social inclusion and social cohesion is a core element of sustainability. Against a backdrop of housing shortages, a cost-of-living crisis, anti-immigration sentiment, etc., the expectation of what role businesses should play is advancing. At Business in the Community we consider that employment offers the single biggest opportunity for vulnerable individuals to escape the cycle of poverty and become active participants. Our Elevate Inclusive Workplace Pledge signatories, which is over 65 companies with a collective workforce of over 150,000, are proactively making strides to build more inclusive workforces which boosts productivity, attracts diverse talent and in turn builds strong and resilient communities.

Our successful education and employment programmes are designed to support businesses to be involved in tackling educational disadvantage, improving employment opportunities for vulnerable job seekers and developing stronger links with local communities. Our recommendations in this area is for the Government to provide multi-annual funding to ensure continuity of some of our successful employment programmes, such as Women@Work, the Traveller employment programme and EPIC, which supports refugees and asylum seekers, and to address the barriers to employment by fully implementing all aspects of the comprehensive employment strategy, national action plan against racism and the social inclusion strategy.

We also know issues of human rights and modern slavery across the supply chain are something more businesses are more concerned about now but they need further training on it. We recommend developing a roadmap to reduce and mitigate modern slavery in Ireland.

The last challenge we want to highlight is the area of enhanced regulation and skills gaps. Business is increasingly required by Government, investors, employees and customers to demonstrate transparency. This drives trust within business and supports genuine ambition and tracking of progress.

The impending compliance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD, and other regulatory non-financial reporting structures is posing a real challenge. While not all businesses are in scope for such regulation, the supply chains will be influenced. The regulation drives a need for data on carbon emissions and social metrics related to human rights by all businesses up and down the value chains. This is highly significant for our SMEs if they want to ensure they maintain being suppliers of choice for large in scope businesses.

Through our work we know there is a skills gap within business to address the multiple demands of reporting regulation, addressing social inequality and the increased technical complexities of supply chain issues like scope 3 carbon measurement. We respond through our one-to-one advisory service, peer-to-peer sharing sessions and collective action campaigns to build a business' understanding and internal capacity so that it can take action and demonstrate leadership.

Our Business Working Responsibly Mark is Ireland's EESG standard and already over 40 companies are certified. It builds capacity of companies to address and manage the reporting asks coming down the line and the mark supports companies to put in place robust internal management systems to mature their sustainability activities. Businesses must develop skills in sustainability to manage the risks, realise the opportunities and make informed investment decisions.

In terms of recommendations we ask the Government to raise greater awareness of the CSRD and other regulatory requirements. We suggest greater support for and upskilling of IDA and Enterprise Ireland staff so that they in tun can educate and train their clients and lastly to improve resourcing and budget to the Department's own responsible business forum, so it has the capacity to actively engage with more businesses. My colleague, Ms Phelan, is on that forum. Those are our three challenges and recommendations around them. I am happy to take members' questions.