Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. The Bill is very welcome. It is good to see Ireland engaging in the global challenge of providing the infrastructure for sustainable development and co-operation with a wide range of other countries. It is in line with our policy for international development and our commitments to human rights and climate justice. However, Ireland’s strong international development policy and our commitment to food security in developing countries makes our failure to address climate issues at home even

more embarrassing.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, AIIB, is a more inclusive institution that moves away from western-led world governance to east-west co-operation. As a result, it has the power to influence and shape globalisation for the better. It is vital that the AIIB practises what it preaches and is held to respecting human rights and the right to sustainable development.

The establishment of a new bank is an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of other international development banks such as the World Bank. Unfortunately, in the name of development, mistakes have been made and grave injustices committed. Actions have been taken in developed countries like Ireland, but even more so in developing countries, which have not respected human rights and have damaged the natural environment on which we all depend.

International financial institutions have frequently been the plunderers of fossil fuel investments, mega-dams and other projects that have dispossessed local indigenous populations, destroyed local environments, reduced biodiversity and increased greenhouse gas emissions. As an example, the International Finance Corporation, IFC, the World Bank’s private sector arm, has funded some of the South-East Asia and Pacific region’s most destructive projects, contravening the IFC’s performance standards and its own social and environmental guidelines. These projects include mega-hydropower dams in Vietnam and Cambodia, dirty coal fired power plants and mines in the Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar, and massive industrial land grabs in Cambodia and Laos.

The AIIB has made commitments to human rights and protecting the environment but as the Minister will be aware, the difficult part is putting the commitments into practice and working out sustainable development on the ground. As an example of the difficulties of practical application, the independent watchdog of the International Finance Corporation, the Office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman, found systemic non-compliance by the corporation with its own policies and procedures across all stages of the investment process.

All the signs are that the AIIB is coming up against real challenges. The AIIB is just getting going, but already there are debates between AIIB members, some of whom, astonishingly, want the bank to fund coal and nuclear power. In Ireland, we have had our own experiences of communities divided by fossil fuel infrastructure projects. We have learned that local Irish communities must be included in the decisions made about them. We must apply this learning abroad and ensure that communities in developing countries are not similarly undermined by projects funded by Irish investments.

As one of its international priorities, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was due to publish its National Plan on Business and Human Rights in the first quarter of 2017. This plan is aimed at implementing the 2011 United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It will provide Irish companies with guidance on how to ensure respect for human rights in their activities at home and abroad.

This action plan aims to also build on Ireland’s national plan on corporate social responsibility, which was published by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in April 2014. In this context, it is welcome that Ireland is bringing its voice and its strong international development policy to the AIIB. The AIIB can benefit from the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the areas of business and human rights.

At the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade NGO forum on business and human rights in November 2014, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, stated:

Ireland has an opportunity to become a leader in the area of business and human rights. However, I worry that the current delay in publishing the National Action Plan will have implications for financial investments under the AIIB.

The concept paper Public Development Banks: Towards a Better Model, published in April 2017 by Eurodad, argues that private investment can have positive outcomes, but historically, infrastructure development has been primarily publicly financed. Multilateral development banks like the European Investment Bank, EIB, and the World Bank must prioritise development outcomes over profit to lift countries into the position of being able to build their own infrastructure rather than being reliant on private investment whose interests may align with profit over the public good.

Ireland, having once been a colonised country with a commodity export dependent economy, well understands the need for independence in setting a country’s priorities. We can play a mediating role in ensuring the AIIB supports infrastructure development that benefits communities and helps countries transition to a sustainable and beneficial development model away from a commodity-dependent development trajectory.

The purpose of our amendment is simply to ensure that we in the Oireachtas give the Minister a clear mandate to operate on the basis of our existing policies. It makes good sense that the environmental, climate and human rights principles we develop for Irish companies operating in Ireland and abroad should be applied to our financial investment activity overseas.

The amendment, in setting out our mandate, starts by emphasising three main areas of concern, namely, human rights, climate change and biodiversity. Our amendment also mandates that Ireland promote, in the work of the bank: the development of human rights and other environmental safeguards to achieve the objectives; the implementation of effective remedies for failings; the operation of due diligence processes and public consultation with affected or potentially-affected communities; and the implementation of international standards relating to responsible lending and borrowing.

The second subsection requires the Minister to report annually to the Dáil on membership of the bank and the steps taken in accordance with the first subsection. These amendments will strengthen Ireland’s reputation as a mediator on the international stage in regard to development, business and human rights.