Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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816. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if the commitment to the sustainable development goals will be reflected in the Strategy and Work Plan 2020-2025 of his Department; his plans to monitor and report annually on the progress towards achieving the goals; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19120/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Public Service Management Act 1997 requires each Government Department to publish at regular intervals a Statement of Strategy, setting out its key objectives, outputs and related strategies for the relevant period.

As the Department’s most recent strategy statement covers the period 2016-2019, officials in my Department have been working to prepare a new statement which will be launched in 2020. While the Deputy refers to a Work Plan covering the period 2020-2025, the Public Service Management Act requires the submission of a new statement following the expiration of a three year period since the preparation of the previous statement. Therefore any statement, and associated work plan, can only cover the period 2020–2023.

Officials in my Department are currently working to reflect in the new strategy statement the relevant Programme for Government commitments and the forthcoming transfer of functions from my Department and to agree the appropriate reporting mechanisms which will enable my Department to monitor, track and report progress on a regular basis.

The work of my Department will be closely aligned to a number of the social and economic dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for example Goal 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions,  while corporate areas will also give due regard to the various environmental dimensions in their policies and activities. As the 2030 Agenda for the SDGs encourages the development of a national response, we will be working closely with colleagues on relevant interdepartmental arrangements on coordination and progress reporting.