Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Minister of State will speak to us about a matter of great urgency. My Commencement matter concerns what steps Ireland is taking to ensure there is a proper process for the very alarming proposal by the European Commission for what is called the "omnibus Bill", which has been called the "bonfire of regulation", to open up the corporate sustainability due diligence directive. This directive was agreed just last year after a lengthy process of many years in which our own Government played an important role, and on which I spoke to the previous Minister, in, for example, pushing for stronger gender equality provisions. Our national business and human rights strategy strongly references the corporate sustainability due diligence directive. Companies that engage in best practice have already started the process of implementing due diligence and proper processes within their companies. This applies to the very largest companies. This is not something that applies to small or medium companies but to the very largest corporations in order that they would have proper standards governing their supply chains and their impact on human rights and on the environment.

Along with the taxonomy, it is now proposed that the corporate sustainability reporting directive agreed just last year be opened up and started again in a back to the drawing board move from the European Commission. This in itself is really shocking because it sends a signal, in terms of the balance of powers within Europe, that the Commission feels it can trample on the work done by national governments through the European Council and by elected representatives in the European Parliament if it does not like the outcome and can effectively seek to scrap those laws.

To be very clear, it is being framed as a simplification but it is not. It is being framed as being related to reporting. The corporate sustainability due diligence directive is not to do with reporting, primarily, and anything that is to do with reporting could have been dealt with through other subsidiary Acts and tools attached. Opening up the directive is, as has been said by the director of the European Coalition for Corporate Justice:

...a full-scale deregulation designed to dismantle corporate accountability and abandon the EU's Green Deal commitments ... [signalling] that corporate profits are more important people's lives or the future of our planet.

That is something Barry Andrews MEP agreed with when describing this as a gutting of corporate accountability and of the EU Green Deal.

Why was there no impact assessment and why has there been no public consultation on the proposal as required under the Commission's own better regulation principles? What engagement has the Irish State had to demand a better process on this? I note there have been closed consultations, effectively in secret, with large corporations only and very few of the large corporations that support this directive. Many of them support having proper sustainability because they want to be able to continue their business on a liveable planet.However, companies like ExxonMobil and other large fossil fuel companies that have caused the climate crisis are the ones invited into the room with the European Commission to say how they want it to change these directives, and what changes they want it to make. I hear the proposal will be published today. My Commencement matter said that surely it should not be published without a proper open public consultation and, for example, the Irish State taking a stand in support of proper sustainability standards and due diligence. In fact, we are hearing that it will be published today, and will not look at simplification of reporting, but will try to remove civil liability so there is no liability for corporations. It will limit who it applies to even further than the tiny percentage. It will also say that you can have a climate transition plan, but you do not need to implement it, which is effectively meaningless.