John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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3. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of the review of the national action plan on business and human rights; the details of Ireland’s position in efforts by the United Nations to develop a treaty on business and human rights; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3889/22]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I want to ask the Minister the status of the review of the national action plan on business and human rights. I also want to ask him our position on a UN treaty on the same issue and whether he would be prepared to bring forward binding legislation to ensure that companies are mandatorily obliged to ensure human rights are protected in all of their dealings.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. I am glad to have an opportunity to update the House on this issue.

Ireland's National Plan on Business and Human Rights 2017-2020 was launched towards the end of 2017. Ireland was the 19th country in the world to publish such a plan in response to the endorsement of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by the Human Rights Council in 2011.

The implementation of this whole-of-government plan was overseen by an implementation group comprised of representatives of Government, civil society and business. Both the plan itself and the programme for Government committed to a review of implementation. This review was undertaken by my Department in consultation with stakeholders during 2021. A draft report was considered at the special session of the multi-stakeholder implementation group on 31 May. This forum included participation by a member of the UN working group on business and human rights, a business and human rights expert from the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and officials from three EU member state Ministries.

The Government noted the finalised review at its meeting on 3 December 2021. It is published on my Department's website: (2017- 2020).

On the proposed UN treaty on business and human rights, as I have previously stated, Ireland is open to examining options for progress on a legally binding instrument. As the Deputy will be aware, the EU holds many of the competences in this policy area. Accordingly, Ireland is engaged in the treaty process through the Union. At the October negotiation session, the EU offered to work with the drafters to find a path forward. Ireland supports this constructive approach. I expect a further draft of the proposed instrument to be developed over the next six months or more.

Finally, I remind the House that the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024 contains a suite of commitments on business and human rights. Together with other EU member states, Ireland is supporting and shaping the implementation of these commitments.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the updated national action plan. I am sure the Minister will agree Irish companies have a responsibility to respect human rights, workers' rights and environmental standards wherever they operate. Unfortunately, however, this is currently done on a voluntary basis and that is simply not acceptable. If we are serious about respecting human rights, that should be mandatory. There are many delays in respect of the UN treaty, which is unhelpful. We are going into the seventh round of talks and there is considerable foot-dragging in that regard. We can follow other countries such as France, which in 2017 brought forward legislation, or Germany or Norway, which also brought forward binding legislation to ensure businesses would respect human rights. That is a track we must follow.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the European Commission is developing a legislative initiative on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence. The detail of this sustainable corporate governance proposal is expected in the near future. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is following this file closely in both Brussels and Dublin and, while my Department has no direct role in the transposition of any directive of this nature, we stand ready to assist colleagues in that Department in any way we can. We are trying to work within an EU system that is in development to ensure what the Deputy is seeking, namely, to make adherence to human rights standards and sustainability standards mandatory as part of corporate governance. That is something we can develop collectively as the EU. The European Commission is giving good leadership on that issue and we certainly support that.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I agree, although I do not think we should be bound by that. We can strengthen whatever comes from the EU and that work needs to start now. For far too long, human rights have been impacted negatively by Irish companies such as the ESB, which imported coal for decades from the Cerrajón mine in Colombia to create electricity in this State while indigenous people's rights were trampled on. Similarly, Airbnb operates in occupied Palestinian territories, and because there is no mandatory binding legislation here, they were allowed to do that.

The facts speak volumes; a voluntary treaty or system simply does not work. If we are serious about human rights, this needs to be done on a mandatory basis. I welcome some of the work going on within the EU but it should not tie us down. We can supersede that and go further, in the same way as Germany, Norway and France.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As I said earlier, the EU holds the competences for many of the issues covered by the proposed legally binding instrument, which is being developed in an open-ended intergovernmental working group on transitional corporations and human rights. We have made clear in Brussels and Geneva that Ireland favours constructive engagement in the treaty negotiations. During the most recent negotiation session in Geneva, the EU offered to assist the chairperson and rapporteur of the working group to explore ideas for a consensus-based, legally binding instrument. As the EU made clear in the negotiations in Geneva, if any proposed treaty is to be effective, it will need to attract wide, cross-regional support. This is essential for the proposed legally binding instrument to ensure it will be effectively implemented in a way that protects victims of business-related human rights violations and creates a more global level playing field. We are in the middle of that discussion and I hope it can produce positive results.