Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentations. I acknowledge the tremendous work that Irish Aid does. In my own constituency of Galway, we have a little organisation run by Ronan Scully called Self Help Africa. I acknowledge the tremendous work that he does. I am a big supporter of Irish Aid. When the budget is being dealt with, we always get constituents asking why we send so much money abroad and saying that we should look after our own first, but I am a firm believer that we should support the most vulnerable in the world. Many of us here have visited various projects through the years.

Ms Keatinge said there are four famines at the moment. I remember reading a newspaper article recently stating that famines in Africa are now worse than they were in the 1980s when we had Live Aid, which put it on the world stage. Unfortunately, we do not have Live Aid now, and we do not have Mary Robinson or Princess Diana, who put famine on the world stage. Mr. MacSorley mentioned that we do not see famine in the news any more or on any television programmes. We see President Trump and his tweets and terrorist attacks that take place around the world. Africa is put far down the list on the news, except for the matter of migration.

Ms Keatinge said that 130 million children do not receive education. That is frightening. That has a huge knock-on effect and is an issue that has to be addressed by all aid agencies worldwide. Ms Foster-Breslin mentioned missionaries in Lusaka. I paid a courtesy call to the parliament there and met 12 members. Eight were taught by Irish missionaries and the respect that Irish missionaries have abroad has to be acknowledged. I am proud of that when I go abroad and see the impact that Irish missionaries had through the years. Unfortunately, we do not have missionaries to send now but there was a knock-on effect.

Mr. Meehan mentioned projects. What is the biggest project that money is spent on? Is there a level of corruption in some of these countries, meaning that Mr. Meehan might have to pay somebody off to go in to try to develop a project, such as a politician or other person? Self Help Africa's project in Zambia is boring for wells for water and that is a very important thing since water supports crops and animals.

I compliment the witnesses on the tremendous work they do abroad and I firmly support my colleague in saying that we need to go abroad and look at these projects as politicians. Unfortunately, the media will put in a freedom of information request and call it a junket, but it is important that we go and see projects first hand. Those people are human beings, the same as us. I went into a school one day and it had one biro between 15 students. We throw them in bins while we are walking. The little things that we take for granted are very important to them.