Due Diligence: Irish minister announces changes

Irish Minister welcomes EU "Omnibus" proposal reducing corporate sustainability reporting requirements and will shortly commence amending existing Irish legislation to remove 80% of companies from CSRD scope.

Key points: Ireland’s enterprise minister, Peter Burke has welcomed EU "Omnibus" proposal reducing corporate sustainability reporting requirements.  The proposal removes 80% of companies from CSRD scope. 

Why this matters:  For companies in scope, the “Omnibus” proposal would restrict the application of the requirements to only those companies having 1,000 employees, as opposed to 250 employees under the current law. The proposals by the Commission will remove approximately 80% of companies from the scope of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), focusing the sustainability reporting obligations on the largest companies. 

What might happen next: The proposed amendments to the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) which was due to come into effect by July 2026, will be postponed by a year and will significantly reduce the compliance requirements on affected businesses.  

Minister Burke says he will soon amend existing Irish legislation governing CSRD to further clarify and reduce the scope of companies covered, with the Minister also focussed on quickly implementing the EU’s ‘Stop the Clock’ proposal together with the changes proposed by the wider Omnibus, once these are adopted at EU level, thereby delivering certainty for business at all levels in Ireland. 

Meanwhile, global trade unions and representatives of the German government have formally announced the creation of the Human Rights Due Diligence Competence Centre, set to open later this year. A statement from the unions says the Centre “will support trade unions in leveraging national and EU legislation – like the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains and EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) – to secure workers’ rights across global value chains and corporate operations”. Read more here.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

ETUC response to the EU Commission’s “Omnibus” proposal

Statement from Irish government 

Quotes from Minister Peter Burke:

“While the core principle of the EU’s original corporate sustainability reporting regime was well-founded in the context of the EU’s Green Deal, the level of administrative burden associated with the original CSRD was excessive, both for large companies and especially for small and medium companies.

I strongly support the simplification and burden reduction agenda that is being led by President von der Leyen at European level, to maximise the competitiveness of businesses in the EU in the evolving global trading environment. These proposed changes will of course significantly help enterprise in Ireland, and most of all our SMEs.

I will be supporting the Commission’s proposed changes at EU level, and I will be advocating for them to be agreed at the earliest opportunity, to give business the legal certainty that it needs, and so that I can prioritise implementing the changes as soon as possible in Ireland.”