Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to Deputy Crowe because I did not deal with his question on the Palestinian situation, Gaza and our contribution. Members will be aware that at the Gaza reconstruction conference in Cairo in September, Ireland committed a further €25 million towards the reconstruction of Gaza, which is a crisis of enormous dimensions. It is regrettable that progress on that reconstruction since then has been slow - in fact it has been negligible.

This is an issue that has been on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council and it will be a matter of priority on the agenda at next month's meeting. I intend visiting the region shortly and I would be happy to report to the committee on that. This is in line with Deputy Quinn's comments about the process of accountability, audit and ensuring that the contributions are directed to the most needy, and that the objective is realised. There is an ongoing process and that is particularly acute in the matter of the Middle East. One of the reasons the Gaza reconstruction programme has not been accelerated in the manner in which some of us might have wished is that the programmes have not been agreed. I am sure everyone would agree it is important to have a clearly defined programme. I hope progress can be made.