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

I congratulate Trócaire on its humanitarian work. I thank Mr. Meehan for his detailed submission. There is absolutely nothing he contributed with which one could disagree. He highlighted the key areas, such as climate change, governance issues - we all know how important that is in emerging democracies - and human rights. I express my deep appreciation of the Roman Catholic community in Ireland. Notwithstanding all the economic difficulties, the contributions to Trócaire have increased on average by 4%, which is an incredible achievement. I thank the witnesses for providing us with more detailed documentation earlier which allowed me to understand a little bit more about Trócaire and its specific Roman Catholic structure. I must admit I am never quite sure about the difference between Trócaire and Concern, but at least I now have it here that Bishop William Crean, the Bishop of Cloyne, is the chairman of Trócaire.

Looking at Trócaire as a religious organisation, Mr. Meehan mentioned the countries in which the organisation is operating, including countries in Africa. I presume Somalia is a Muslim country. The conflict in South Sudan is between Christians and Muslims. There was also a conflict between Christians and Muslims in Kenya. We read about the horrendous massacre in northern Nigeria of students in their dormitories, burned to death by fanatics from the Muslim community, who are systematically targeting Christians, Catholics and others. Mr. Meehan highlights that Trócaire concentrates on addressing the issues of HIV and the AIDS and then speaks about the vulnerability to AIDS. We talk further about gender equality, which I presume is about empowering women. I note that Trócaire is involved in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is recognised as the world capital for rape.

The themes involved are gender, women, Catholicism, Christianity and empowering women. Perhaps I will take the lead from Senator Norris, who would argue about fertility control, and ask whether Mr. Meehan finds any degree of conflict in the implementation of Trócaire's policies. I would argue that maybe a woman has more control of her fertility, that is to say, could engage in family planning, have a smaller family, and might be more economically secure in her development. I would argue that for the poor unfortunates in the Democratic Republic of Congo who are being raped incessantly, abortion may be an issue that would have to be addressed by these unfortunate schoolchildren, or whoever they are. These are important issues for a Catholic or Protestant agency engaging in this work. Does Mr. Meehan find that such a conflict exists in the field?

I cannot help but feel very sorry for the lesbian spokesperson from Uganda who spoke about the horrors that are going to unfold there. That law is so repressive. I lived in Africa for four years. African men are macho and the culture is macho. They are going to target systematically these poor unfortunate sexual minorities and annihilate them. There is a terrible record in Africa, unfortunately. Black Africans can be born white as albinos, believe it or not, and there is a terrible systematic slaughtering of albinos.

Trócaire is addressing all the issues that are of concern to humanity, such as gender inequality and HIV-AIDS. One of the methods of reducing vulnerability to HIV is the use of condoms and other forms of prevention. Does Trócaire experience a conflict between its religious persuasion and the implementation on the ground?

Given that Trócaire is involved in so many of the Muslim societies, is there a conflict? Aid workers have been murdered because they were trying to inoculate children against polio and the Muslim community say this is a Western-inspired plot. I wish the organisation the best. Does Trócaire have a relationship with the Red Cross and Red Crescent and the different structures, Red Crescent presumably being the Muslim interpretation of the Red Cross in the West?