Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am really pleased to have the opportunity to speak to this Bill on Second Stage today. I thank Deputy Ó Cathasaigh and his team for their work on this legislation. I have not had the opportunity to meet the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales yet but, in my role, I have met a number of Welsh Ministers at various intergovernmental meetings over the last number of years. It has always been interesting to hear them speak about how the role of the commissioner is influencing things, particularly in the area of children because it is usually the children's Ministers I meet, and about how some of the thinking and policy orientation from the commissioner is having an impact on day-to-day decisions. There was also quite a significant intervention in another area, that of transport infrastructure, in respect of a major new motorway that may not have been needed. In Wales, we see a really a good example of this sort of thinking about future people, as the Deputy describes them, working well in a jurisdiction with a size and make-up similar to our own. That is why the Bill the Deputy is proposing today is so timely.

As the Deputy has set out, the Bill provides for the establishment of a commission for future generations for the purpose of reporting to the Government on the establishment of the office of an ombudsman for future generations and related matters. Through that process, the Bill seeks to address the question of how we can safeguard the well-being of future generations and ensure that decisions we make in the present do not impact dramatically on their future. The proposed commission will garner the necessary expertise to report to Government regarding the establishment of a full office of ombudsman for future generations. It would also advise on how this office could advise, assist and oversee the measurable progress of public bodies and Government bodies on the dimensions of the well-being framework.

The commission’s report would advise on progress on the overall well-being of society, the collection of data and measurable parameters so that progress towards better well-being can be tangibly measured. It would also set goals and indicators to measure this change and look at predictions of likely future trends affecting well-being within our country. The report would also encourage and examine best practice among public bodies and Government Departments to progress the well-being of society, assess how they can better safeguard the ability of future generations to meet future needs and take account of long-term impacts in their practices and actions. It would also look at the role of a potential Oireachtas joint committee on future generations, how such a committee would work with this ombudsman and how it might consider and propose amendments to any necessary legislation.

I agree with the Deputy that there is no doubt that our actions in the present impact on future generations. This includes those who are not yet born and those who are too young at present to be able to fully take part in the democratic process. The impact on future generations arising from our current actions or, indeed, inaction - it is important to note that inaction can be as damaging and devastating as action - is even more pertinent in the world we now live in, which is changing so rapidly. We face a magnitude of risks, some of which are geopolitical, economic, societal, environmental and technological in nature. Many of these have emerged or intensified in recent years. In many instances, it is future generations who will face the consequences of how we respond to new and emerging risks. These risks include a changing geopolitical order, lower levels of trust in Government and in institutions more widely, climate change, biodiversity loss, Ireland’s changing demographic, disruptive technologies and more. We have a once-in-a-generation example of how risks and changes can impact on us in the Covid-19 pandemic and the massive impact it had on all of our lives over those months and years and subsequently through changes to society, some of which have been positive although many have had a lasting negative impact.

Ireland is already fully committed to achieving the sustainable development goals. Indeed, it had a significant role in the development and adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as, together with Kenya, we were co-facilitator of the intergovernmental negotiations in September 2015. The objective of sustainable development is to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Agenda 2030 uses a five-dimensional model of sustainable development based on the five Ps: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. The SDGs cover three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth, social inclusion and the protection of the environment. They are universal in application and aim to address poverty, hunger and food systems, health, education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, energy, economic growth, decent jobs, industrialisation, inequalities, cities and human settlements, sustainable consumption and production, climate change, oceans, ecosystems, and peace and justice. Ireland has adopted a whole-of-government approach to SDG implementation with overall political oversight provided through the Cabinet. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications has responsibility for promoting the SDGs and for overseeing their coherent implementation across Government.

As the Deputy referred to, at UN level, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution in 2022 to hold the Summit of the Future on 22 and 23 September 2024. That summit will be the centrepiece of the UN General Assembly high-level week this September. The aim of the summit is for member states to recommit to the multilateral system and to the 2030 agenda in particular. The outcome will be an action-oriented pact for the future, which will be endorsed by Heads of State and Government at the summit, pointing the way for the innovations and reforms required over the coming years. The declaration on future generations will be annexed to the pact for the future and will be one of the outcome documents of the Summit of the Future. It aims to protect the interests of future generations in national and global decision-making while strengthening co-ordination and global governance for the common future of present and coming generations.

The UN Secretary General published 11 policy briefs between March and July 2023 intended to propose concrete actions and to inform the discussions of members states in advance of the 2023 SDG summit and the Summit of the Future this September. The first brief, entitled "To Think and Act for Future Generations", provides a number of suggestions and practical steps to ensure that intergenerational solidarity becomes the guiding star of sustainable development and renewal of the multilateral system. It seeks to shed light on why it is so important to adopt a future generations approach in policy design as a way to achieve long-term sustainability and to examine how the UN will embrace this approach in practice. Responding to questions raised by member states on balancing responsibility between the current generation and future generations, those living today and those not yet born, the policy brief highlights that the needs of present and future generations are not at odds and argues that efforts to consider the future will leave all generations, both now and then, better off.

The brief recognises that we do not lack commitments to take future generations into account, but the practical mechanisms and concrete steps. How we do it is probably the big outstanding question. The UN brief proposes four steps to be taken at the global level, one of which is the appointment of a special envoy to represent and advocate for future generations. This approach is now being adopted at UN level. The brief recognises that there are many examples of approaches from member states. The UN singles out the approach of Wales as a model of good practice.

The concept of considering future generations is not new to us in Ireland. I have already spoken of our commitment to the sustainable development goals but there is significant work going on across government that takes the impact of policies on societal well-being, now and in the future, into account. In 2021, we launched Ireland's well-being framework, a programme for Government initiative to measure progress and policy impact in a more holistic way. The framework is made up of different aspects of well-being and is supported by a dashboard which brings together economic, social and environmental statistics in an integrated way. I think we are all well aware of the inability of basic measures like GNP and GNI* to provide a rounded view of where our country, society and environment is. That is why the initiative the Government is taking is so important. It is led by the Department of the Taoiseach in conjunction with the Department of Finance and the Department of public expenditure, and there is an interdepartmental group that brings all Departments together in furtherance of the framework.

Work is progressing on embedding the well-being approach into policy development and decision-making. This includes integration into key points of the budget process, contributing to cross-government understanding of expenditure allocations and helping to inform prioritisation considerations and to enhance transparency. That is important because, while indicators and statistics are valuable in themselves, where they inform the budget, one of the biggest political decisions the Government makes every year, they are of particular value.

As children's Minister, I particularly support the inclusion of the voices of children and young people in policy decisions. Ireland is a world leader in participation practices and was the first country in Europe to have a dedicated participation strategy for children and young people. The action plan on children's participation was recently published and will further progress this important focus. The ambitions of this action plan will see the voices of children and young people embedded in decisions made across more Departments and agencies than ever before. Having said we are talking about people not born or those who are born but cannot directly influence the democratic process, we must ensure their voices are heard on all issues. We consulted children and young people during the Covid pandemic about their views on mask-wearing, as well as on reform of the curriculum and wider issues like our response to climate change. Young people are now consulted in our country about policies in this area. That is an important step towards future-proofing decision-making but I recognise it is just a step. What is proposed by Deputy Ó Cathasaigh goes significantly further.

The national risk assessment, which was inaugurated in 2014, provides a whole-of-government framework for the identification of national-level significant risks, with a particular focus on strategic or structural risks which may arise in the short, medium and long term. There is a whole-of-government approach to the mitigation of these risks.

There is a lot going on across government to understand the impact of current decisions, threats and actions on future generations and getting that input into policymaking. I reiterate the importance of this future generations approach. As agenda 2030 emphasises:

The future of humanity and of our planet lies in our hands. It lies also in the hands of today’s younger generation who will pass the torch to future generations.

I thank the Deputy for bringing forward the proposal. I look forward to working with him on the concept he has set out and taking it through the legislative process in the months ahead. We have strong examples of this approach working in similarly sized and structured countries. It is a good initiative and I look forward to working with the Deputy on it.

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