Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor Walsh for an interesting, challenging presentation. I was struck by his support for the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment being the driver. There is irony in that since we are far behind when it comes to meeting our targets. Would he have considered any other Department as the lead? We have been having a debate about bilateral and multilateral aid here. It is good to hear what Professor Walsh says about Ireland's presence in the multilateral area. How does he think we could do that? We see the effect of bilateral aid but we are not sure about the multilateral aid. There are concerns that it is swallowed up in administration and the security agenda. I agree with Professor Walsh about tax havens because it is damaging our reputation. There is also the multinational agenda, which I think we have to be stronger on, as well as corruption we see in governments. That corruption can be for a variety of reasons. It can be deliberate or it can be due to governments not having the capacity to take on multinational companies.

I have a big bugbear with my colleagues about education and how we measure SDGs. It is not just about getting numbers into schools. It has to be about the quality of education that students receive. Perhaps our universities or training colleges might be more involved in that. Some 70 to 80 children come into a school with one teacher, a couple of books between them and maybe one blackboard. It cannot just be a box-ticking exercise. We spoke with Mr. David Donoghue. If Ireland reaches 0.7% of GNI on the current projected growth rates, we would provide €2.5 billion. We will have a meeting here at the end of November about how we could spend that. We talk about the big picture but there is also the little picture. While people theorise and create policy, other people are starving and dying. We had the opportunity last week, being in Malawi and Mozambique, to see the work of our ambassadors, with ambassador Gerry Cunningham in Malawi and William Carlos in Mozambique. We saw first-hand the benefit of bilateral aid and it was incredible. Once that bilateral aid goes to women, they will do more with it than if it were given to the men.