Mr. Jim Clarken:

There were some interesting comments and questions and I will do my best to try to cover as many as I can and complement what has already been said. Deputy Crowe asked if the monitoring group for the national action plan should be up and running. It should be but is not so we urge those with influence to try to ensure that happens as soon as possible. It is very sad about Ms Inez McCormack's personal situation and we offer our sympathies to her. She would have been an ideal chairperson but, unfortunately, that has not been possible. It is important that the process gets moving with some momentum.

I was not aware of the documentary regarding the Congo. We brought a television crew to Congo approximately three years ago and there was an outdoor exhibition in Dublin and Belfast to highlight the issue. The statement that this is a forgotten war is correct. With 5.4 million people killed, it is the worst conflict since the Second World War but it is still not seen on the media every day of the week. As a result there is not sufficient focus on it and we must continue our efforts in that respect. Oxfam works there, supported by Irish Aid, and we are grateful for that.

I will mention the Arab world with regard to Saudi Arabia. I recently returned from Tunisia, having met with women's groups in that country.

They talk about revolution in the present tense, which is interesting. One would have been very ambitious for the rights of women in that type of environment but they are very concerned - surprisingly enough, it was quite a secular society underneath the dictatorship - about women's rights not only in Tunisia but in Egypt and other countries in the region. That is an area we need to continue to focus on and apply pressure, externally and internally, to make sure it does not slide and that progress is made in the right direction.

I refer to Deputy O'Sullivan's comments and to tax justice, as we describe it. It has to be a key focus for our work and we need to highlight where injustices occur. As part of our work, we have been involved in applying pressure and laws have been enacted in the US to ensure that US multinationals involved in the extractive industry in various African countries, in particular, are transparent in regard to where exactly the material comes from, the prices paid, how the communities are affected and so on. That is for all of the companies listed on all of the US stock exchanges. We hope similar pressures will work in Europe because there is still a lack of transparency as to how these exchanges work and, of course, we have situations in which there are shelf companies in tax havens preventing national governments from generating revenue.

Ultimately, development will be in the hands of the governments of developing countries with the support of bilateral and multilateral engagement and so on. Our belief is that for effective development to happen, one needs two things. One needs an effective state, government and parliament rather than power being vested in one space. One also needs a very active civil society which holds that government to account to ensure it does what it says it will do and delivers what it says it will deliver and which challenges it on all those issues. An active media space in which it is safe for civil society to challenge the government, as we are fortunate enough to have here, is needed. That is something we strongly believe in.

Deputy Smith talked about agriculture and the role of women in agriculture. Today, as part of our conference, we are celebrating some work we have done in Tanzania, with which the Chairman is familiar. We run a programme called Female Food Heroes which shines a light on the important role women and women farmers play in the production and delivery of food for the whole of the nation. This started off as just a concept and we thought we might have a couple of hundred people interested in participating but in the first year, we ended up having more than 7,000 applicants. We reduced it down to a manageable number and created a competition which was televised in Tanzania. Ultimately, the winner won a tractor and other support. The prizes are not important; what is important is raised awareness among men and women of the key role women play in agriculture and food production. They are central to the success of that, so our support is important.

I really appreciated the comments by Deputy Durkan in regard to the relative significance of our problems versus those in other parts of the world, which he linked to our ongoing commitments in regard to aid. It is important to realise there is much success, although we talk about these huge problems and issues we are dealing with. I refer to the We Can End All Violence Against Women programme, on which we work in many countries. We encourage men and women to sign up to this campaign and become what are known as change makers. We were at an event outside Dar es Salaam at which these change makers were being initiated and were being asked to sign up to make a very short number of commitments that they would not engage in violence against women. The men will not do it and the women will not accept it and they will encourage others. This is having a dramatic effect on culture and society and on acceptance of these things. There are tremendous successes as well.

This is a long game and we need to stay in it. Collectively, we need to stay committed and we will continue to see positive results.