Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I wish to pursue an issue Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Taoiseach about yesterday but did not get anywhere with, namely, the corporate sustainability directive. This is a potentially important directive that would make corporations responsible for abuses of labour rights, environmental protection and consumer protection right through their supply chains. However, a massive corporate lobbying effort to water it down is happening. An important part of that effort is saying finance should be excluded. The Irish Coalition for Business and Human Rights met the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, last week and asked if the Government has taken a position on this. The coalition was told the Government has not done so. However, the next day Reuters reported:

Luxembourg, Ireland and Germany have indicated they want to exclude asset managers and institutional investors from scope [...] Ireland said in a submission it could not signal its agreement to including financial undertakings, and called for an assessment from the EU's securities, insurance and banking watchdogs ...

Is that the Government's position? How can the Taoiseach possibly justify it?

See this speech in context