Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
110. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the way that his Department plans to reflect the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in Budget 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40670/22]
View answerThe UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a significant and ambitious policy agenda that concerns all Government Departments. The first National Implementation Plan 2018-2020, published in 2018, was developed to oversee and facilitate coherent implementation of the SDGs across Government, and to promote awareness of the SDGs.
My Department is currently finalising the next National Implementation Plan which I intend to publish later this year. The UN 2030 Agenda references the role and importance that national budgets play in the implementation of the SDGs. A key objective of the proposed new Implementation Plan is to embed the framework provided by the UN 2030 Agenda and the SDGs within the Irish policy environment, including national policies and programmes, to support work towards achieving the SDGs.
This plan will set out a robust framework to support coherent SDG implementation across Government and the mainstreaming of the SDGs into existing policies, including their integration into the principal administrative, planning and accountability structures across the Civil Service, such as the budgetary process. In this regard I anticipate that cognisance of international best practice and national developments in green, equality and well-being budgeting will be to the fore.
