Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State's ambition. He said that the review showed that 91% of commitments in the original plan were implemented. However, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission found that "While a high implementation rate is reported, there was a failure to meet key commitments within agreed timeframes and the Plan focused on 'promotion' rather than mandatory and ambitious requirements." We are talking about a human rights plan here and the need to embed it in all companies, the importance of which is clear. I do not know if the Minister of State is aware of the report from Trinity Business School entitled "Irish Business and Human Rights - A snapshot of large firms operating in Ireland". It is a really damning, 45-page report. It uses three measurement themes: governance; embedding respect; and grievance procedures. A full 86% of the companies surveyed scored less than 50% of the available marks, while 28% of companies scored no points under human rights due diligence.

Then we have the State bodies, which featured very badly. State-owned enterprises fared poorly, with five of them scoring less than one point. We are talking about Coillte, CIÉ, Dublin Airport, An Post and so on. That is a human rights report from January of this year.

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