Rose Conway-Walsh warns Omnibus could weaken CSDDD protections

Minister, I want to talk to you about the Omnibus Directive, and in particular the Enterprise Committee's concerns that the proposals extend far beyond simplification of burdensome regulations for small and medium enterprises, and that these could weaken the due diligence obligations of larger companies. So I think that's a really important thing that we need to know where we stand on it. In particular, late Minister, I want to ask you, is Ireland voting in favour of deregulation or to protect the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive? Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Cahirlach. As the Deputy is aware, simplification and burden reduction is a key issue at EU level, with a view to improving EU competitiveness and ensuring that there isn't disproportionate burdens on businesses, particularly SMEs. In this context, the Omnibus on Sustainability was published on February 2025. I wish to acknowledge the work undertaken by the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment in relation to the Omnibus on Sustainability. This included public sessions held on the 11th and 18th of June, the latter of which included participation by officials from my department in relation to the implications of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. I have noted the contents of the subsequent report of the Joint Committee dated 18 July 2025. In line with the call from EU leaders to make early progress on this Omnibus, a negotiating mandate was agreed by Member States on 23 June 2025 on the content aspect of the proposal. I understand that the European Parliament are scheduled to adopt a position on the proposal today, after which it is expected the trial of negotiations will commence. I welcome progress on the proposal which will significantly help the EU enterprises and most notably and critically SMEs. While changes have been proposed in the published directive in the context of the EU simplification and burden reduction agenda, the intention remains to promote responsible business conduct. It is envisaged that in-scope companies will continue to be required to conduct risk-based human rights and environmental due diligence and integrate due diligence into all corporate policies and risk management systems. Ireland has sought to play a constructive role in the negotiations and will be mindful of the observations of the Joint Committee when the trial of negotiations get underway. Minister, we all agree and everybody agrees in terms of what needs to be done for small and medium businesses in particular, but indeed for any other businesses in terms of addressing the administrative burden in that regard and the duplication and a lot of the nonsense requirements that are made on businesses. But I am here and my Donegal colleague is here, Charles Ward as well, and when I hear about deregulation, I am mindful of what it is costing us right now in terms of the defective concrete block scandal, where we are going to have to pay billions, billions because of light regulation. And I really don't want us to go down that road again. Now, the Irish Coalition for Business and Human Rights with members including the IC2, Christian Aid Ireland, Trocora, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth Ireland and many other civil organisations and academic experts say that CSDDD will not be effective unless it includes the following elements that's maintaining the CSDDD risk-based approach to due diligence and allowing companies to focus on prioritising, to prioritise those risks to human rights and the environment within their chain of activity. I think we really need to get this right. Thank you, Cahir. Look, I think anyone who saw the draggy scorecard that was published a fortnight ago really points out the implementation process of the simplification revolution and how slow it is. We really need to have an impetus on this. I spoke to all my MEPs in our party in the parliament to really get a big push on the six omnibus pieces of legislation now currently with the parliament. And we need to see simplification really borne out for our SMEs. We see from the original proposal that 35 per cent of a reduction can be achieved by 2030, about 37 billion of a saving for our SMEs. No-one is talking about key regulation that protects our citizens in terms of what the deputy spoke about in relation to mica and effective concrete blocks and products like that, which is key for our economy and we have learnt a lot over the last decade and previous to that in relation to our regulatory processes. We have a huge amount of regulators in the state now, but we need to ensure that their interoperability with SMEs can be enhanced and that we do things a little easier, that we ensure we are making progress and not putting unnecessary burden on businesses, which is key for me as an enterprise minister. Debbie? I don't think the two things are contradictory in the sense of what we need to do in this space, Minister. Obviously, we need to do everything. Median businesses are really struggling right now. But I think also that we don't need to sacrifice our, I mean, how are we going to meet our mission targets? How are we going to ensure that employees, workers' rights are protected within this space? But maintaining the CSDDD's harmonised civil liability regime to prevent fragmentation and increase legal costs and to ensure that the justice for victims, that's really important. We also need to ensure that the CSDDD requirement to put into effect climate transition plans is maintained in that. We also need to protect the CSDDD provisions on stakeholder engagement. So the changes that are brought around by the OMS was not only to render the CSDDD ineffective by making sure that companies will fail to identify the most severe risks which take place further down their value chains. They also fail in their stated aim of simplifying legislation. Indeed, the changes will mean that all due diligence obligations are passed to most European first to its suppliers. So I think there's a way of getting this right, but we need to get the balance right. Well, this is about simplification. One of the key things is we need to support our SMEs to ensure that the burden isn't inappropriate as placed upon them. In relation to each of the issues you mentioned, it is going to continue to be a risk-based approach, which is important. Stakeholder involvement will be very core to the Directive, which I think also is very important. In relation to harmonised civil liability, obviously national governments will be able to determine and make a determination on this, which I think is also very important. In relation to our climate policies, which is key, that we look at implementation, and that's what the new trilog will be focused on, the implementation of climate action and how we support businesses to try and embark upon that transition. But the key thing is here that we have too much regulation, and we know that from our SMEs, from our businesses, the pressure that they are on. And we need to ensure that we have proportionate legislation and that we really, as an economy, are incentivising innovative approaches and ensuring that we are protecting citizens. In no way am I talking about watering down the regulatory requirements of key processes in our state, which are so important. This is about doing things quicker. And we saw from Draghi, we saw from Letta, the work we have to do in a European context. And now it's time to get on with the job. Thanks very much.