Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy Ó Cathasaigh on bringing forward the Bill. I welcome the principle behind what it is the Deputy is trying to do here. I am not sure if it is the exactly correct mechanism but it is important that we here in this Parliament and globally look to the future and look at the impact of the decisions we make today not just over our term in politics but the impact it has for future generations. The single biggest criticism I have about the political system is that we work on five-year cycles. It is all about the impact one can have over a five-year period rather than looking at the long-term implications of a decision and taking decisions in the long-term strategic interest of a country.

I am not sure about the actual mechanism Deputy Ó Cathasaigh is proposing for the establishment of an ombudsman. Quite a number of parliaments across the world now have established committees of the future where the parliament itself looks at the long-term projections around issues. They then work back from there with legislative, regulatory and policy steps that can be taken in the short term to achieve them.

I believe, however, that the principle behind the Bill is well warranted and I would like to see this legislation progress beyond this stage and have a far broader debate. Sadly, at global level today we see in society a restructuring of the pillars of society we had in the past. This is due to dealing with huge social and political changes, the financial crises and the pandemics. We see too that a shake-up is taking place in many democracies across the globe with an increased rise in populism. In tandem there is a huge technological shift taking place in automation, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology. There is also the undermining of global institutions on a day-to-day basis. We see this with the United Nations, the UN Security Council, and the World Trade Organization that have now become effectively obsolete.

We now need to recalibrate everything and look to the future generations to see how we can work to achieve the goals we want to achieve in the future. That would help to bring about a completely different paradigm in human and planetary security. It would prioritise resilience, holistic well-being, and safety and stability, not just for individuals and for communities but for nations and for future generations to help them navigate the multifaceted challenges and opportunities that we have today. A number of these opportunities are emerging at the moment, including artificial intelligence, with its positives and negatives. In the past few days we saw the opportunities in human augmentation when a young child had a limb replaced, but where do we draw the line on that? There are also huge opportunities in the development of quantum computing. From a climate perspective one future development that will cause a huge geopolitical shift potentially is the whole area of geoengineering. What implication will this have for large countries in effectively controlling rainfall, where the rain falls and when the rain falls? This has a potential impact for conflict in adjoining countries, an environmental impact, a food impact, and - as a result of that - a political impact. We are now living in a world with huge environmental threats, huge geopolitical tensions and massive technological disruptions.

We need to look from a very different perspective to a more secure and prosperous future that will require new cross-border alliances, improved relationships between governments and businesses and, more important, national and institutional collaboration to mitigate some of these growing threats. The prism through which to look at some of these challenges is that of future generations rather than that of what is in a country's self-interest, which is the prism many countries look through today. Part of the reason many of our global institutions are being undermined is that societies right across the planet are becoming far more insular rather than global in their views.

One of the concepts that the UN has espoused, that of human security, represents a prism through which we might be able to look very differently at solving problems. That includes the foresight Deputy Ó Cathasaigh has spoken about, the long-term thinking, and feeding it into the short-term decisions we all have to make when around the Cabinet table. However, it is also about prioritising the security and well-being of individuals and communities regardless of their socioeconomic status, ethnicity, age, gender identity or geographical location. It is about ensuring communities most affected by decisions have a privileged voice in what happens and are listened to. This is imperative when it comes to the global south and the global rule-making that takes place daily.

It is also a matter of listening to local people, indigenous perspectives in many parts of the world and local communities in parts of Ireland in a way that challenges the groupthink we have for so long seen in this country and many others, where there is only one approach or solution rather than trying to bring people on the journey with us. If Deputy Ó Cathasaigh's legislation facilitates much broader engagement and a far more generous approach that involves listening to individuals and communities so we can work with them to provide long-term sustainable solutions that address not only the challenges we face today, including climate change, but also those faced by future generations, rather than just hearing what they are saying so we can respond to them, it is commendable. For that reason, I commend it to the House and hope it passes on Second Stage and that we can have a far more detailed discussion on Committee Stage. Well done to Deputy Ó Cathasaigh.

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