Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. The aim of the directive is to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour throughout global value chains, but it is a weak directive as it stands and, therefore, the reports that Ireland is looking to prevent the inclusion of asset managers and institutional investors from the corporate sustainability reporting directive are concerning.

I will quote Ms Marie Donnelly, chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council, CCAC, who has openly called out the financial sector. She stated:

If I had my way, the first, the middle and the last item on the agenda would be to stop all funding of fossil fuel exploration. We've found enough. We don't need any more. My message to Irish banks is "come clean on what you invest in and then be able to stand over it".

The Minister of State will be aware that the world's top banks provided $742 billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry in 2021, little changed on the year prior. This was shown in a report on Wednesday, despite growing calls to rein in lending to help tackle global warming.

The types of human rights abuses that the Government is potentially seeking to exclude asset managers and institutional investors from doing due diligence to identify and mitigate in their value chains include child labour, slave labour, forced displacement, land grabbing, violence and human trafficking. Considering upstream risks but excluding downstream ones means that, for example, Bank of Ireland would need to do due diligence on the paper it uses in its photocopiers but not on the €100 million it gives to fund a wind energy project on biodiverse lands. Will the Minister of State clarify definitively that Ireland's position is that financial institutions, including their downstream activities, must be included in the directive?