Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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3. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment how he is taking account of the views expressed by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment in its scrutiny of the proposed omnibus directive, in particular the committee's concerns that the proposals extend far beyond the simplification of burdensome regulations for small and medium enterprises and could weaken the due diligence obligations of large companies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62596/25]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I want to talk to the Minister about the proposed omnibus directive and in particular the enterprise committee's concerns that the proposals extend far beyond simplification of burdensome regulations for small and medium enterprises and that these could weaken the due diligence obligations of larger companies. It is really important that we need to know where we stand on it. Is Ireland voting in favour of deregulation or to protect the corporate sustainability due diligence directive?

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, simplification and burden reduction is a key issue at EU level with a view to improving EU competitiveness and ensuring there are no disproportionate burdens on business, particularly SMEs. In this context, the omnibus on sustainability was published in February 2025. I wish to acknowledge the work undertaken by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment in relation to the omnibus on sustainability. This included public sessions held on 11 and 18 June, the latter of which included participation by officials from my Department in relation to the implications for the corporate sustainability due diligence directive, CSDDD, and the corporate sustainability reporting directive. I have noted the contents of the subsequent report from the joint committee, dated 18 July 2025.

In line with the call from EU leaders to make early progress on this omnibus, a negotiating mandate was agreed by member states on 23 June 2025 on the content aspect of the proposal. I understand that the European Parliament is scheduled to adopt a position on the proposal today, after which it is expected that trilogue negotiations will shortly commence.

I welcome progress on the proposal, which will significantly help EU enterprises and, most notably and critically, SMEs. While changes have been proposed in the published directive, in the context of the EU simplification and burden reduction agenda, the intention remains to promote responsible business conduct. It is envisaged that in-scope companies will continue to be required to conduct risk-based human rights and environmental due diligence and to integrate due diligence into all corporate policies and risk management systems. Ireland has sought to play a constructive role in the negotiations and I will be mindful of the observations of the joint committee when the trilogue negotiations get under way.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Everybody agrees on what needs to be done for small and medium businesses in particular, and for any other businesses, in addressing the administrative burden, the duplication and a lot of the nonsense around requirements that are made on businesses. Deputy Charles Ward, my Donegal colleague, is here and when I hear about deregulation, I am mindful of what the defective concrete block scandal is costing us right now. We are going to have to pay billions of euro because of light regulation. I really do not want us to go down that road again.

The Irish Coalition for Business and Human Rights, whose members include ICTU, Christian Aid Ireland, Trócaire, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth Ireland and many other civil organisations and academic experts, says that CSDDD will not be effective unless it includes maintaining the CSDDD risk-based approach to due diligence and allowing companies to focus on prioritise those risks to human rights and the environment within their chain of activity. We really need to get this right.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Anyone who saw the Draghi scorecard published a fortnight ago will see it really points out the implementation process of the simplification revolution and how slow it is. We really need to have an impetus on this. I spoke to all the MEPs in our party in the European Parliament to really get a big push on this. There are six pieces of omnibus legislation currently with the Parliament. We need to see simplification really borne out for our SMEs. We see from the original proposal that 35% of a reduction can be achieved by 2030, with some €37 billion of a saving for SMEs. No one is talking about key regulation that protects our citizens in terms of what the Deputy spoke about in relation to on mica, defective concrete blocks and products like that. That is key for our economy. We have learned a lot over the past decade and previously about our regulatory processes. We have a huge number of regulators in the State now but we need to ensure their interoperability with SMEs can be enhanced, that we do things a little easier, that we are making progress and that we are not putting an unnecessary burden on businesses, which is key for me as an enterprise Minister.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I do not think the two things are contradictory in the sense of what we need to do in this space. Obviously, we need to do everything. Small and medium businesses are really struggling right now but we do not need to sacrifice, for example, how we are going to meet our emissions targets or how we are going to ensure that employees' and workers' rights are protected within this space. Maintaining the CSDDD harmonised civil liability regime to prevent fragmentation and increased legal costs and ensuring justice for victims are really important. We also need to ensure that the CSDDD requirement to put into effect climate transition plans is maintained.

We need to protect the CSDDD provisions on stakeholder engagement. The changes brought about by the omnibus proposal not only render the CSDDD ineffective by making sure that companies will fail to identify the most severe risks that take place further down their value chains, but also fail in their stated aim of simplifying legislation. The changes will mean that all due diligence obligations are passed to suppliers. There is a way of getting this right but we need to get the balance right.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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This is about simplification. One of the key issues is the need to support our SMEs to ensure the burden placed on them is not inappropriate. With regard to each of the issues mentioned, a risk-based approach will continue, which is important. Stakeholder involvement will be core to the directive, which is also very important.

With regard to harmonised civil liability, obviously national governments will be able to make a determination on this, which is also very important. With regard to our climate policies, it is key that we look at implementation and this is what the new trial will be focused on. It will be focused on the implementation of climate action and how we support businesses to try to embark upon transition. The key issue is that we have too much regulation. We know from our SMEs and businesses the pressure they are under and we need to ensure we have proportionate legislation and that, as an economy, we incentivise innovative approaches and ensure we are protecting citizens. In no way am I talking about watering down the regulatory requirements of key processes in our State, which are so important. This is about doing things quicker. We saw from the Draghi and Letta reports the work we have to do in a European context. Now is the time to get on with the job.