Ms Suzanne Keatinge:

I thank the committee for all the questions. I will not dare answer all of them, but the main point is that with Brexit there are huge opportunities as well as challenges, and over the next while we need to drill down and look at some of those details so that we can maximise the opportunities. When looking at it from Ireland's perspective, the key issue for me is that Ireland will have to focus much more in terms of who it is working with in Europe. It is not just about money - it is very likely that development funding is going to go down. More importantly, there is a real fragmentation among the leadership which says that aid is needed for the poorest of the poor. It is in leadership, in stepping into the gap around policy, that Ireland really has an opportunity. There needs to be much more focus in working with like-minded countries at EU level.

In terms of the countries and the issues we can work on, there is still a need for much more focus. We talked about conflict, peace and negotiation. Even Irish Aid would acknowledge that they are spending a huge amount of humanitarian aid in the likes of South Sudan, but that is not going resolve the issue. Where is the political engagement? How can we get more involved in terms of aid, development and political engagement? Those are the kind of things that we need to tease out and look for some focus on over the next few years.

On President Trump, we can perhaps come back to the committee with specifics. I met with my colleague from the US recently, and it is true that the US aid budget is going to see a decrease of 25%. More importantly, the US is a huge contributor to the United Nations, and almost overnight that funding will disappear. Who is stepping up to the plate? Some countries are stepping up, but there are never enough. We will have a huge financing and funding gap there. The policy direction and influence is the worry there, but it is too early to tell what that looks like. Perhaps that is something we can come back to at another time.