Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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701. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the progress made to include reference in all new statements of strategy to all sustainable development goal targets for which his Department has lead responsibility as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals National Implementation Plan 2018-2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25742/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I published the Department's Statement of Strategy for the period 2021 to 2024 on 14th April 2021.

The Strategy was developed taking into consideration the Department’s role in contributing to the delivery of five Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in leading on twelve specific targets, but also sharing responsibility for another twenty-one targets with other Departments. The five SDGs referred to are:

Goal 2Zero Hunger

Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production

Goal 14 Life below Water

Goal 15 Life on Land

Goal 17 Partnership for the Goals

The details are on page 21 of the Statement of Strategy: gov.ie - Statement of Strategy 2021 - 2024 (www.gov.ie).

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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702. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the specific sustainable development goal targets his Department is responsible for implementing; the progress made in implementing those targets since 26 April 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25760/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Overall political oversight for national Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) implementation is provided through the Cabinet, with each Minister having specific responsibility for implementing individual SDG targets related to their Ministerial functions.

The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) has responsibility for promoting the SDGs and for overseeing their coherent implementation across Government. The first National Implementation Plan (2018-2020), published in 2018, set out Ireland’s strategy to achieve the SDGs both domestically and internationally. An important element of this Plan is the SDG Policy Map and Matrix, which identified the lead and stakeholder Departments for each of the Goals and targets and also mapped national sectoral policies against the 17 SDGs and all 169 related targets, in order to identify which policies were most relevant to which SDGs and their associated targets.

The SDG Policy Map and Matrix enhances the ability of stakeholders to track Ireland’s implementation of specific SDGs and associated targets, and to assess Ireland’s response to the SDGs for potential policy gaps. It also supports and enhances cross-Government engagement in implementing each of the Goals and Targets. This policy map has recently been updated and is available online at gov.ie. The Department is a lead on the following five SDGs:

- Goal 2: Zero Hunger

- Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

- Goal 14: Life below Water

- Goal 15: Life on Land

- Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Progress on these is published on .

As part of the National Implementation Plan 2018-2020, there was a commitment to include reference in all new Statements of Strategy to all SDG targets for which a Department has lead responsibility. This Department’s new Statement of Strategy includes the SDGs.

The draft agri-food strategy to 2030, drawn up by a stakeholder committee, has been published as part of a public consultation on its environmental assessment, and is open for submissions until 15th June. The draft strategy includes cross-references to the appropriate SDGs.