Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also wish to apologise in advance as I will have to leave a little early. I am speaking in the House shortly.

I thank the witnesses for their very graphic description of what is going on in Angola. One could be talking about almost any country in central or southern Africa, as the same problems of rich countries and poor people arise. People should be prospering in rich countries but they are starving in spite of all the natural resources that have been discovered that would make them rich relative to others.

Where there are land grabs, tax problems, war and corruption, together with climate change, one gets a crisis such as that which exists in Angola. I would have no problem in going along with the recommendations that have been made and I would be pleased to make those representations. One aspect that interested me was the need for governments to conduct gender analysis. Christian Aid is concerned with poverty, and while all those problems result in poverty, one of the major causes of poverty is the unequal role and status of women in such societies, with early marriage, a lack of education, and too many children - all the things that make for poor families, societies and countries.

I wish to raise with the delegation a matter that the committee has not had an opportunity to discuss. I refer to the appalling situation in Nigeria where girls were taken whose only crime was to attend school. Despite a lot of hot air nothing has happened. Almost three weeks have elapsed and God knows where they are now. Christian Aid has the experience of working in a lot of countries. Can it tell us what we can do to highlight their plight? What can we do to rescue them and prevent abductions happening again? Apparently there has been another case of abduction in the past few days. Where will it all end when a society allows abductions to happen? Such behaviour has been virtually sanctioned by Governments through their inaction.