Mr. Feargal O'Connell:

Deputies Maureen O'Sullivan and Seán Crowe talked about media interest and this is very important. The day famine was declared in South Sudan, the top headline across all media outlets was President Trump talking about something that did not happen in Sweden. These are editorial decisions and maybe the wrong people are before the committee to talk about why these terrible crises are not being given enough media attention.

Concern and all other Dóchas member organisations issue press releases and offer trained professionals who can deal with the media for interview in Dublin and the affected countries, but our offers are turned down. I will leave it to members to decide how they want to address that issue.

To respond to Deputy Crowe, Ireland's journey out of poverty, oppression and violence did not happen over 20 years. We have to be realistic about timeframes. Mr. Clarken stated there has been progress on a global scale. Extreme poverty rates have declined significantly in the past 50 years, as have maternal mortality rates and preventable childhood diseases. Progress is being made and Dóchas members such as Concern are working very closely with Irish Aid to the extent that we have rigorous scientific evidence to show that our programmes are having an impact on poverty. We are lifting people out of poverty and making people healthier and more resilient in the long term. We need to bring this progress to scale and we require funding to do so.

On aid worker safety, we have been doing this work for nearly 50 years and we have tried and tested mechanisms in which we can, as far as possible, ensure our teams' safety on the ground. We invest a large amount of time in training for staff and undertaking analysis to develop standard operating procedures and security management plans. The most important thing that keeps us safe, however, is acceptance at community level, which is created by ensuring we have quality programmes that are appreciated by the communities we work with and by operating in a spirit of openness and transparency with communities. Moreover, we stay in communities for the long haul rather than leaving after a year. The communities we are working in have a long-standing relationship with us, which affords us a great deal of security.

Mr. O'Loughlin, who has experience of political involvement in the region, will now contribute.