Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As some of the questions are quite technical members might intervene if I miss any of the points made. In regard to the questions posed by Deputy Smith, as I understand it DAC praised Ireland for its work on policy coherence across Departments. A wide range of Departments participated in the review. Perhaps I missed something in the question articulated by the Deputy. An interdepartmental committee on development, which I will chair, is to be established. The task of that committee will be to build on the progress of the DAC review and to examine the new sustainable development goals.

We should examine the possibilities for further engagement between NGOs and the committee. I have been at the Department for a relatively short time, and my experience so far has been that the relationship between Irish Aid, the Minister, Department officials and the NGO community is flexible and open. There is very much an open door policy.

A question was asked about the response to Ebola. The Department of Health is the main funding Department to the WHO. With regard to the Irish response to Ebola, given that Sierra Leone is one of our partner countries in which we have an embassy and embassy staff, we were able to influence, cajole, nudge and ensure the international response was robust. There is a critique of whether the international response, through all of the international multilateral organisations, was quick enough, and the answer is patently "No", but if one kicked the tyres on the Irish response one would see it was robust and immediate. The very weekend I was in Sierra Leone, after we had begun meetings with the President and various ministers in key departments, the UN mission was arriving, but we were already there on the ground. This allowed us to state what needed to happen in the response by virtue of our experience of working with key partner organisations such as GOAL, Concern and Plan. We knew exactly what needed to happen with regard to contact tracing and establishing phone banks so people could report in. I would argue our abilities on the ground were without par.