Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the witnesses for their presentations. With regard to Mr. MacSorley's concluding remarks on the 20 million people facing starvation at present and 65 million refugees worldwide, there really is a crisis. There are so many crises throughout the world at present. In our engagement with the Secretary General of the Department and Irish Aid officials, we spoke at some length about the potential of the knowledge transfer and the involvement of Irish companies. They are now multinational companies, and great credit is due to them. So many of those have become internationalised, particularly in the food sector, and there is great potential there.

The theme running very strongly through Mr. Meehan's contribution was his concern about a greater percentage of our aid going to UN-based organisations, the European Development Fund and other mechanisms, with a reduced amount going through our NGOs. Is he concerned that aid going through the UN organisations and the European Development Fund goes to areas that do not reflect Irish Aid priorities? Is that his concern?