Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I believe my children will be able to buy their own homes. Even though we face housing challenges in Ireland today, we are seeing many people every week buying their first home with the assistance of the State. We need a lot more of this. The Senator is absolutely right about the state of the world today internationally and the impact of this here also. It is very hard to predict what Ireland, Europe and the world will be like even in a year never mind five or ten years. We speak about Ireland's role in agreeing the sustainable development goals of the UN, and Ireland was very central, along with Kenya, when the goals were agreed to. There are also, of course, many of the laudable policies mentioned today with regard to the national well-being framework, a pact for the future and other work we are doing. The truth is the reality of this must be about implementation as well as putting together plans.

Many of the SDGs are not goals we are closing in on; in fact, we are moving away from them in many cases. Approximately 13% of the planet's population lives in the type of democracy that Wales and Ireland enjoy. The rest of the world is living in countries that are either autocratic or moving away from democracy. We live in extraordinary privilege in this part of the world and in this country. We make mistakes in how it is run but in comparison to most of the planet we have extraordinary opportunities ahead of our children and the next generation. We are trying to prepare for them. Having a champion for these future generations is a good idea, not only as watchdog on government policy, policymakers and ministers, which is an important role for any future ombudsman or commissioner, but also somebody who can paint a picture of the type of future we want to work for and towards, and can generate public interest, excitement and momentum around some of the messaging. In this legislation we need to try to ensure the commission is not just designing a policing body, although this must be part of assessing any future policy change in terms of its impact in ten years as well as in a year.

Politicians often tend to make decisions linked to election cycles rather than future generations. I refer to having a champion that is constantly pulling the debate back to how this will impact on future generations whether that is on climate, economic development, the approach to geopolitical change - something like a definition or an approach towards Irish neutrality in the future, for example. These are debates we are having now and having a champion, an office or an ombudsman for future generations as part of that discussion would be a very healthy thing. It will be seen by some in the Government system as an inconvenience - that is the politest way I could put it - when they are trying to put together their own policy documents and they are being questioned and pulled and dragged in different directions by someone who is not part of that silo, if you want to call it that. That is a challenge. I remember when we put the programme for Government together we tried to move towards a mission-type approach towards outcomes, as opposed to individual Departments doing X, Y and Z. It has worked in some areas and not in others.

I am not quite sure we should call it an ombudsman's office. That signals to me a complaints or a policing body which has negative connotations to it. Someone, or an office, representing future generations should be a place where inspiration and optimism comes from, as well as challenge and having a hard edge in terms of its relationship with Government.

On ensuring this works, there is an argument that this body would be funded by or be the policy responsibility of the Department of the Taoiseach rather than the Departments of environment, children, enterprise or education. My experience across five or six ministries is that if you are trying to do something that crosses multiple Departments and do not have the Department of the Taoiseach making sure that happens, it gets stuck in the mud. What happens is one Department simply does not take instruction from another and it becomes a sort of a pecking order issue around who has the responsibility for a certain policy. That changes when the Department of the Taoiseach takes charge of something. That is what happened during Covid and what has happened from a climate point of view in setting up a Department with responsibility for climate in which the Department of Taoiseach has been very involved as well. If this is to be an ombudsman linked to Government or to policy development, the sponsoring Department should be the Department of the Taoiseach. It will then be taken seriously across Departments; it may not otherwise be. The last thing we want to do here is to set up a new body that looks good on paper, feels good but of which nobody takes any notice. I do not want to be in any way cynical in saying that but a real danger here is that this will not be seen as part of the real business of Government. The danger is that we will have somebody who will be having consultations around the country, meeting youth clubs, chambers of commerce and environmental NGOs. They will produce report, come in to this committee and talk about what we need to do for the future. However, will they really have a edge to them that actually determines how Secretaries General of Departments shape policy and recommendations to Ministers? If we are going to do this, we need to have an outcome that has punch and influence and shapes future Government policy, even if it is inconvenient, difficult and raises hackles and so on. That is part of what this office, this individual or team of people should be doing whatever we decide to call them.

Having met Sophie Howe who was the future generations commission for Wales, I was quite inspired by the whole concept. What Wales was trying to do is different and it is worth pursuing in Ireland. I would warn against designing this in a way that does not give it real clout because it will essentially be seen as a lobbyist, almost like an NGO, and that is not what we need here. What we need is something that Ministers feel they have to engage with as an office and by which they can be challenged. If you have the imprimatur of the Department of the Taoiseach behind this entity, it is a much stronger entity from the outset. That would be my view but I look forward to the future debate. I may not be around for it but I will follow it with interest.