Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Donoghue very much for the presentation. It is great to hear from somebody who was so closely involved with the development of the SDGs. I compliment Mr. Donoghue, on behalf of the committee, on his incredibly important role in co-chairing the process. It is a remarkable achievement to have every country signing up without reservation.

It is particularly interesting for this committee, which is in the process of carrying out a review of Irish Aid. We heard earlier from a number of non-governmental organisations, NGOs, and from Dóchas. I do not know if the witness heard the discussion, but it considered multilateral versusbilateral delivery of aid. I am interested in the witness's view, as the co-chair of the SDG process, on the importance of multilateral aid programmes. An argument was made by Dóchas and particularly by Trócaire that Irish Aid should rebalance and move more towards bilateral rather than multilateral aid. Some of the people who spoke to the committee expressed concern about a lack of transparency as to where money directed to multilateral aid goes. The Concern representative then spoke about reforms at UN level that were addressing some of those concerns.

Delivery being crucial, could Mr. Donoghue say how we can deliver on the SDGs, not just in Ireland but elsewhere? How important is multilateral aid in this regard? Could he say something about the reforms of the UN development system? Earlier, the committee heard comments about "bloated bureaucracy". As somebody who believes passionately in multilateral approaches to aid and development as being more effective and sustainable, I would like to know how we can ensure the transparency we are looking for in multilateral aid and what the UN is doing to ensure better transparency and reform.

My other question is about our progress report in July 2018. I am interested to note that the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment is co-ordinating that work. Could Mr. Donoghue say whether it is appropriate that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade would not be the lead Department on it, as I had assumed it would be? We know how important climate change and climate action are, and I presume that is the explanation, but just perhaps Mr. Donoghue can tease this out.