Mr. Jim Clarken:

I echo what has been said. Despair is not an option. In 2015, we signed the declaration for the sustainable development goals for the next 15 years, marking the moment we acknowledged the reduction in extreme poverty across the world by 50% over the previous 15 to 20 years. It may not feel like it today, but the world is making some progress on development. It is important to acknowledge this as we move forward. The common themes in all areas are conflict, shockingly poor governance and irresponsible leadership, international interference and climate change, and all of these have nothing to do with the populations themselves. Ireland is not a huge country but we can play an important role as we are quite influential for our size. We co-chair the sustainable development goal programme and last year we co-chaired the refugee and migration conference. We chaired the successful convention on the banning of cluster munitions so we have an important role. We also need to look at ourselves and sometimes that is the hardest bridge to cross. We need to look at our responsibility to refugees and our climate responsibilities because what we do here has an impact in developing countries.

Investment in advance of a crisis is far more cost-effective, as well as preventing shocking levels of human suffering. It is expensive to do what we do because it is difficult, dangerous and very late and we can save many lives and make the situation much better by investing earlier, when the flags have been raised.

Deputy O'Sullivan asked why this has not gone further. We are all trying to make a breakthrough in the media space, together and as individuals. We are being blanketed with our own priorities, such as Brexit and the US, but we have to ask what is the biggest global problem. The former issues are big and important, to us and to the world, but this famine is the biggest story in the world right now and we need to face up to it. We can do so and the world usually responds well when we do that. I am not saying it is simple because we have huge political and conflict issues but if one ignores them, they will just get worse. Every conflict has a resolution, though it might not feel like that today, and if anybody knows this, we in Ireland do. We have to keep focusing and look at the angles from which Ireland can engage, of which there are many. We need to look at the influence we can have, whether through donor conferences or at UN or EU level. We need, for example, to be brave enough to say we cannot accept a particular policy being advanced at EU level, having seen the damage it is doing. We have to invest political capital, which is hard, but we can do it.