Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have a brief supplementary question. Busan was mentioned. I have been to Seoul with the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, and the OECD. We are examining and preparing for the United Nations post-2015 framework. I was shocked to hear from so many parliamentarians and delegates that some of these countries do not even know some of the agencies that are operating in their countries.

While I appreciate that Ireland is a member of the OECD and that its overseas aid operations are peer reviewed, are our guests conscious of certain charities, non-governmental agencies or church groups which appear - possibly uninvited - and commence operations in developing countries? When carrying out peer reviews, do our guests encounter difficulties with regard to the activities of these types of agencies which are not really answerable to, guided by or known to the authorities in the countries in question? Some individuals from Africa came before the committee and explained that representatives from certain fundamentalist churches were involved in campaigning against gay and lesbian rights in their countries.