Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As stated, we provide €10 million in aid to Palestine. I have been to the West Bank twice. During the course of both visits I met a number of theatre, youth, heritage, disability and music and dance groups, none of which were in receipt of funding. There were some projects that were being funded by Italy. I was struck by the fact that we appear to be giving money to the same projects all of the time. Is there any leeway in this regard for new groups and organisations? Some of the people with whom I met were doing phenomenal work in the middle of very difficult situations, while getting on with their lives. I have discussed this issue with the embassy in Ramallah but I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight it here today.

While much of the focus in relation to Tanzania is on support for farming some of our partner countries have major coastlines. Is any emphasis being put on fishing, food-related processing and, perhaps, the seaweed industry? We discussed this issue with the Tanzanian parliamentarians during their visit here. I accept it is a broader issue. I remain supportive of the emphasis on farming because we know that growing food is for some people a way out of poverty. However, these is huge potential in the sea.