Ireland has adopted a whole-of-government approach to SDG implementation, with each Minister having specific responsibility for implementing individual SDG targets related to their Ministerial functions. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications has responsibility for promoting the SDGs, and for overseeing their coherent implementation across Government.

Ireland’s Second National Implementation Plan for the Sustainable Development Goals sets out five strategic objectives and 51 actions, with 119 individual measures. The plan was developed in collaboration with all Government Departments, key stakeholders, and based on input from two public consultation processes held over the last year.

The Plan also contains 22 case studies to showcase some of the valuable initiatives and examples of best practice projects and programmes being progressed by a variety of organisations, institutions and sectors across the country.

Strategic Objectives:

1. To embed the SDG framework into the work of Government Departments to achieve greater Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development

The Plan aims to build capacity, raise the profile of the SDGs, better mainstream Agenda 2030 across Government Departments and enhance cooperation and coordination between national policy makers.

2. To integrate the SDGs into Local Authority work to better support the localisation of the SDGs

The Plan aims to raise capacity and build on the role of local government in respect of the SDGs, including embedding the SDGs in governance, reporting and local planning frameworks and through community engagement.

3. Greater partnerships for the Goals

Reflecting the fact that the SDGs belong to everybody, the Plan includes a substantial new chapter relating to sectoral stakeholder engagement and identifying opportunities for greater partnerships. It is intended that this chapter and the groups included therein will be further developed in subsequent iterations of this Implementation Plan.

4. To further incorporate the principle of Leave No One Behind into Ireland’s Agenda 2030 implementation and reporting mechanisms

A commitment given in the 2022-2024 National Implementation Plan is to open a collaborative and inclusive dialogue to explore the concept of Leave No One Behind and what it means in an Irish context. This will form the focus for discussion at the next SDG National Stakeholder Forum meeting.

5. Strong reporting mechanisms

The Plan includes actions to introduce robust reporting mechanisms to monitor progress on the SDGs and SDG targets as well as on the status of the actions set out in the Plan.