Sinn Féin spokesperson on enterprise, trade, and employment, Louise O’Reilly TD and Sinn Féin MEP for Midlands–North-West, Chris MacManus, called for the Irish government to continue to support the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
 
Teachta O’Reilly said:
 
“The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) intends to lay down requirements for companies to identify, prevent, mitigate, and end environmental harms and human rights violations within their value chains.
 
“The EU legislation had reached the final hurdle where it was expected that the compromise text would become law.
 
“Unfortunately, in the past number of months the CSDDD has become subject to misinformation and falsehoods regarding its impact.
 
“The net result being that a small number of member states decided to withdraw their support for the proposal at the eleventh hour.
 
“This is a worrying development as the directive would have a significant benefit in the fight against corporate impunity.
 
“It is important that the Irish government continue to support the directive and liaises with member states who have done a major political volte-face on the CSDDD.”
 
MEP MacManus said:
 
“The CSDDD is not only supported by civil society organisations, trade unions and academics, but by large networks of businesses who have emphasised that it is necessary for a level playing field across the EU.
 
“It is important that every effort is made to pass this long-negotiated compromise text, as failure to do so would represent a serious setback for corporate accountability and signal that large corporates can disregard human and environmental rights in their global operations.
 
“Protecting these rights should not be controversial. We cannot allow the interests of big businesses to be placed above the lives and livelihoods of those affected by them. “