Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a significant and ambitious framework. A whole-of-Government approach to its implementation has been taken in Ireland.

Ireland’s Second National Implementation Plan for the Sustainable Development Goals, 2022-2024 was published in October 2022. The Plan was developed by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in collaboration with all Government Departments, key stakeholders, and based on input from two public consultation processes. The feedback provided as part of the 2021 SDG consultation process was used to directly inform the priorities and actions developed as part of the National Implementation Plan.

My Department is leading on Action 39, aimed to “Establish a suitable mechanism to facilitate business sector engagement with the SDGs which facilitates the linking of work where synergies and overlapping objectives arise”. To progress on this Action, my Department has prioritised engagement with business, employer and employee representative groups and stakeholders, through various initiatives such as the Enterprise Forum, the Retail Forum, the Company Law Review Group, the Enterprise Digital Advisory Forum and the Labour Employer Economic Forum and other groups set up for specific purposes. These groups, working with DETE’s Offices and Agencies, and other government departments, provided platforms for direct engagement with the enterprise sectors as they prepared for Brexit and dealt with the impacts of COVID-19 and the Ukraine crisis.

To deliver on measure 39(b), which requires to “integrate SDGs as a fixed agenda item in an existing business forum or through an alternative engagement mechanism”, SDGs are now integrated as a fixed agenda item in one of the Enterprise Forum meetings planned in 2024.

The Enterprise Forum was established in 2017, initially dealing with impacts on enterprise arising from Brexit, and more recently impacts of COVID-19 on enterprise. The purpose of the forum is now to discuss enterprise policy implications arising from emerging national and international challenges, with a particular focus on capturing the views, concerns and suggestions of the enterprise sector. Henceforth, the Enterprise Forum meeting represents an ideal opportunity for DETE to increase engagement with the business community on the SDGs.

The recently published White Paper on Enterprise 2022-2030 emphasised upon aligning its enterprise policy priorities with the SDGs and supporting firms to apply their creativity and innovation to solving sustainable development challenges. In light of this, my Department intends to continue the engagement with the business community and other representative organisations in 2024 to support the implementation of the Second National Implementation Plan for the SDGs and the potential collaboration between the Government and the recently established UN Global Compact Local Network in Ireland.