Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This is a welcome chance to discuss an important and substantial piece of work that issues every year from Social Justice Ireland, which tracks our attainment in terms of the sustainable progress index or sustainable development goals over of the year. I raised this issue this time last year and submitted a similar Topical Issue.

It is an important milestone and a good opportunity to take stock of where we are with regard to the sustainable development goals. It is nearly seven years ago now that Ireland played a significant and historical role in the process to agree and adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development plan and sustainable development goals alongside the co-chair, which at the time was Kenya. The adoption of agenda 2030 was one of the pivotal moments of 2015, with countries from all over the world coming together and committing to do more for fair, equitable and environmentally sustainable development. We have had some positive progress in terms of the workings of the Parliament here. We have it written into standing orders of each committee now that they should consider progress on the sustainable development goals within their area although I am not sure how many committees are undertaking that work.

I will direct the Minister of State to page 36 of the Measuring Success: Sustainable Progress Index 2022 report, which gives a nice visual dashboard that in one snapshot gives an overview of how we are doing in terms of sustainable development goals. I am heartened that the arrows are tending in the correct direction. There are no areas in which we are making backwards travel. Many areas are still earmarked for concern, however. The ones that are red-listed include climate action, responsible consumption and production and partnership for the goals. I draw particular attention to goal 7, which deals with affordable and clean energy. It states that "Ireland’s CO2 emissions from energy fuels combustion/electricity output ... are one of the highest in the sample."

The heat strategy that was issued earlier this week identifies that we have a difficulty in terms of heating our homes in a sustainable way. We certainly have an issue around the affordability of heating our homes at the moment. The score for the proportion of people who are unable to keep their home adequately warm places Ireland in the middle of the rankings. I am sure that with our ambitious retrofit scheme, which again was announced last week, we will be hoping to make significant substantial improvement in that area in the 12 months ahead and beyond.

In the area of responsible consumption and production, again, we rank poorly based on this sustainable development goal. Our "recycling rate of municipal waste is very low and the indicators of circular material use ... is one of the lowest in our sample." Again, I would be hoping for significant progress on this as we introduce our circular economy. The work in front of us will be significant in tackling not only input costs but the resultant emissions.

On climate action, a key indicator used by EUROSTAT is greenhouse gas emissions. While we are making some progress in this area, we are not making it any way far or fast enough. Emissions may have fallen but we are still well above the EU average. The last of the sustainable development goals to which I will point is goal 14, which is life below water. I spoke previously in this House on an Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, report that highlighted the intense problems we have in some of our waterways. We have very few pristine rivers left. We have a particular problem where I am from in the south east in terms of the level of nitrogen that is finding its way into the waterways.

I ask the Minister of State for an update of the progress of where we are in terms of the implementation plan and co-ordination of the interdepartmental working group and how that work is ongoing within the Department.

See this speech in context