This report prepares the ground for “Developing a Responsible Business Compass in Ireland”. Ireland’s proposed public facing navigable tool (“Compass”) of European Union (EU) legislation and Irish institutional and policy support will help policymakers and businesses understand requirements under the EU legislative landscape for sustainability and responsible business conduct (RBC), and foster policy reform and compliance in Ireland, including through administrative simplification and tailored assistance.
The report presents OECD recommendations on the features and functionalities of a future Compass. It builds on a project that analyses how selected EU legislative measures interact in scope and requirements, how existing policy measures in Ireland could promote compliance, where synergies could be found or where gaps may need to be addressed. The report comes with an interactive pilot visualisation tool that enables businesses, policymakers and other stakeholders to explore interactions between EU legislation, and between EU legislation and Ireland’s institutions and policy initiatives.
Findings benefited from a cross-Ministerial and multilevel policy dialogue, involving 13 of Ireland’s Departments and agencies, and a broad stakeholder engagement, including through a public consultation launched by Minister Smyth, Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation at the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. The Project, conducted in co-operation with the European Commission and supported by the Technical Support Instrument, contributes to ongoing reforms in Ireland to promote competitiveness and sustainability, the green and circular transition, integration in responsible global value chains (GVCs), including of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and regional cohesion.
The report includes four chapters. A first chapter highlights overlaps and differences in legislative scope and timelines of implementation, across nine EU measures, and discusses the requirements and specific provisions targeting SMEs. These nine measures were selected for their potential relevance to Irish businesses, aiming to promote corporate due diligence, the circular economy and carbon emissions reduction. The measures include the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, EU Regulation to prohibit products made with forced labour, EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products, EU Batteries Regulation EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, EU Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive, EU Directive on common rules promoting the repair of goods, and the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism Regulation.
The subsequent chapters include further guidance. The second chapter compares the EU due diligence related measures to OECD RBC Standards, categorised as disclosure measures, conduct measures, and product and market-based measures that prohibit the import, export or placing on the market of products or commodities associated with certain risks. The third chapter examines the preparedness of Ireland’s institutional and policy system to promote business compliance and competitiveness in this new EU legislative landscape and changing GVCs. It presents a mapping of governance arrangements and measures in place, that could support businesses, administrative simplification and policy consistency. The mapping that spans across different policy areas and levels of governance highlights possible synergies and gaps where cross-sectoral and multilevel co-ordination will be particularly important. The fourth chapter presents recommendations to Ireland for the development of a future online Responsible Business Compass.