Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 March 2020
55. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his attention has been drawn to a report by an organisation (details supplied) on the Cerrejón mine in Colombia titled Undermining Human Rights, Ireland, the ESB and Cerrejón Coal; his views on its findings; and if, considering the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, he has discussed the findings of the report with the ESB. [3883/20]
View answerI am aware of the report mentioned by the Deputy. While I have not discussed the details of this specific report with ESB, I wrote to them in September 2019 requesting further information regarding their sourcing of coal from Cerrejón.
I received a response in October 2019 in which the ESB outlined a recent assessment of the mine carried out by Bettercoal. Bettercoal is an organisation established by major coal buyers to ensure coal is being sourced via responsible supply chains, which the ESB joined in 2014. This assessment indicates that the Cerrejón mine's operating principles are essentially in line with the Bettercoal best practice code. Bettercoal has made a number of recommendations to Cerrejón for improvement and increased compliance, on which I understand that the mine has been actively engaging.
My Department has been monitoring issues surrounding the Cerrejón mine in Colombia, including its reported negative impact on the environment and local communities, on an ongoing basis. Our new Embassy in Bogotá has been actively engaging on this issue and our Ambassador to Colombia led an Embassy visit to La Guajira, where the mine is located, in Septembner 2019. I have reported to the Dáil previously on this visit.
In respect of the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, the need for effective human rights due diligence mechanisms is one of the issues under consideration by the Business and Human Rights Implementation Group.
The Group is looking at a variety of options, including mandatory human rights due diligence mechanisms, in line with similar provisions in other countries. I will await the outcome of the Implementation Group's deliberations on this issue before moving forward with specific policy proposals.
