Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Professor Walsh is very welcome. It is good to have him here. I thank him for the very interesting presentation. He will be responding to Deputy Crowe's comment. I did not understand the professor to say what Deputy Crowe implied about humanitarian aid. He may clarify that.

I was very glad to hear Professor Walsh's comments about Mr. David Donoghue, who was before this committee on 19 October and who was superb and really impressive. I absolutely endorse what Professor Walsh said in this regard, as would everyone else.

At our earlier hearings, I asked a representative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about the target of 0.7%.

His comment was that our ODA spend has increased in absolute terms even while the percentage has not because our economy is growing. The subtext I felt was that there was a resistance to committing to a percentage target. Will the witness comment on how do we answer that if we want to see a multi-budget commitment to reaching that target? How do we deal with that criticism, which is that as our economy is growing the pot of money allocated to this area become bigger and bigger.

With regard to the bilateral versus multilateral Irish direct contribution to aid in the EU, we had a debate on this in previous sessions. I agree with what Professor Walsh and others have said about the visibility of a direct bilateral programme and direct accountability. We need to be careful that we are not seen to be overly critical of the hugely important multilateral programmes run by the EU and the UN and the huge capacity for more effective delivery without duplication when it is done on a transnational basis. Who should we have in here from the EU to speak to us about where that spend is going? Is there an office we can ask as a foreign affairs committee in the same way as we have had officials from our foreign affairs programme and Irish Aid?

It was good to hear the witnesses emphasise the role of universities. There is a great deal going on across all universities, as others have said, with secondary schools and student-led organisations like the SUAS educational development initiative. The Trinity College law school had a long running programme with Rule of Law in southern and eastern Africa. I have been in Tanzania, Botswana and South Africa and have seen how small amounts of money can really impact. How do we co-operate among our universities to ensure no duplication and the most efficient and effective delivery through building up those connections that we have with individual law schools and other universities? How can we co-ordinate that?

What does Professor Walsh think is the big strength of Irish Aid seen from an international perspective? Others have talked about the different ways in which Irish Aid is well regarded but what do we bring specifically, particularly through our bilateral programmes, that is different?