Towards Responsible Business, Ireland’s National Plan on Corporate Social Responsibility 2017-2020 was published in June 2017. The aim of the Plan was to continue to build on the awareness created under the first National Plan on CSR Good for Business Good for Community, Ireland’s National Plan on Corporate Social Responsibility 2014-2016.
The second National Plan on CSR 2017-2020 set out seventeen actions across four goals (i) awareness (ii) access (iii) support and (iv) policy alignment under four key dimensions: The Workplace, The Environment, The Community and The Workplace.
The CSR Stakeholder Forum, a business led voluntary body, was tasked with driving the implementation of the seventeen actions in the National Plan on CSR. Over the period the Forum developed a work programme each year which focused on themes that aligned with actions in the National Plan on CSR.
Three Progress Reports were published under Towards Responsible Business, Ireland’s National Plan on Corporate Social Responsibility 2017-2020 - CSR Check 2018, CSR Check 2019 and CSR Check 2020. CSR Check 2020 was due to be published in June 2020 but was deferred due to the impact of COVID-19 on resources. The CSR Checks are available on enterprise.gov.ie
CSR Check 2020 was the final Progress Report on the National Plan on CSR 2017-2020 and concluded the initiative.
There are multiple initiatives underway across the Department, that relate to new EU and other international regulations on how businesses operate, with a view to promoting positive impacts (and reducing negative impacts) on environmental, societal and human rights issues. These initiatives, which broadly correlate to the corporate ESG agenda and are inter-related, are being coordinated within DETE under the heading of “Responsible Business”. Outreach, including stakeholder engagement, and communications in the relevant areas will be utilising the Responsible Business name, starting with a dedicated webpage on the departmental website and an upcoming webinar on the 23rd of May.