Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Grealish and Maureen O'Sullivan for their kind words. I agree wholeheartedly with Deputy Grealish. He paid significant tribute to the staff of our embassies. My experience as a junior Minister in education from 2011 to 2014 working with the embassies, Enterprise Ireland and the IDA in trying to attract additional investment and students was exceptionally positive. That positive experience of being a Minister of State in education has translated into my current role.

My recent visits to both Tanzania and South Africa have impressed upon me the absolute commitment and professionalism of all our people who work abroad. They are ambassadors for Ireland and they do it in the most effective way possible.

I also found interesting the deliberate and wise recruitment of a significant number of local staff at our embassies. These are extraordinary people who have so much to offer and, let us be frank, have a lot more skin in the game when it comes to furthering the aims of their communities. They derive huge pride from being recognised by our embassies and people abroad as being the very best that can be recruited in the region. It is wonderful to see the deep professional relationships being developed by Irish embassy staff, our people here in Dublin and Limerick and those local staff abroad. Not alone in terms of international development but in terms of the future relationships that will exist between our two countries, developing those relationships now with our local staff will serve Ireland to a positive extent in the future.

The Deputy also spoke about the impact of social welfare supports. During my visit to Tanzania, that was one of the messages I brought home. Ireland supports the TASAF programme, which is being implemented by the Tanzanian Government and is targeting the million poorest families in the country. As the Deputy said, for somewhere between €8 and €10 a month, which we would describe as an insignificant amount of money, this is making a real difference to the lives of people. What is really smart is that all the money is being channelled through the women in those Tanzanian households. It empowers women. There is a deep and innate entrepreneurial thing going on in Africa. By their nature, Africans are entrepreneurial people. Many of the women we met were starting small communities in their communities. They are the fundamental decision makers in the household in terms of their children's education and family's health, so to target that money and channel it through them is wise.

Deputy Grealish and Deputy O'Sullivan spoke about increasing our footprint, that is, our staff complement, on the ground in Africa. I agree that we should be considering it in the context of the discussions at this committee over the next number of months in preparation for the publication of the White Paper and moving towards our 0.7% goal in 2030. The Taoiseach speaks regularly about doubling the Irish footprint but we need to move beyond what seems to date to be the traditional understanding of that footprint. It is not alone about establishing a network of embassies and consulates around the world but about building on the strong relationships we have already developed, particularly on the African continent. Perhaps it means the recruitment of more local staff into those embassies across the African continent. It needs to be considered in terms of the overall ambition and moving towards the 0.7% target. Looking at our staff complement in these countries must be a critical part of it.

The Deputy spoke about the huge challenges around population growth and education. Education will play a vital role in addressing that population growth on the one hand while, on the other, empowering, for example, the 1 million Tanzanian young people emerging into the workforce. We need to look at the significant experience this country has garnered through FÁS and Solas in upskilling our own people. There is some ongoing collaboration deriving from the lessons we have learned in Ireland and how we gave a whole generation of Irish young people the skills to partake in the extraordinary economic growth we have seen over the past 50 or 60 years. I believe that those who are in their late teens, 20s and 30s in Africa are about to embark on that same journey.

When I was in Pretoria a number of weeks ago, I met the South Africa Gaels. This is a new Gaelic football club which has been set up by an extraordinary Irishman out there. We met seven or eight of these young African men and women, predominantly aged 18 to 22, one evening at a reception organised by the ambassador. Four of them came over to me but not to talk about Gaelic football. Frankly, they would have gotten a very strange response if they did because I know nothing about Gaelic football. Hurling I could have talked about. However, consistently and individually they asked me about education. That was the recurring theme for these young people: "How can you help me to be educated?" We need to keep that focus in mind. We have an extraordinary track record in terms of our footprint in Africa in education. If we build on that, we will play a significant role in helping them to address those challenges in the future.

I agree with Deputy O'Sullivan, who echoed the sentiments of Deputy Grealish, in praising the work of the ambassadors and their wives. As she remarked, they have a significant role to play in the daily life of our embassies and consulates around the world.

Deputy O'Sullivan also asked about education which I will address first. I agree wholeheartedly with her that there has to be a huge focus on the importance of education. In terms of TASAF, one of the key positive outcomes of that social welfare intervention has been greater access to education by the million poorest families in Tanzania . We need to keep focusing on improving access to education for marginalised groups while also seeking to address the quality of education so that there is a consistent quality across that education provision, particularly in the areas of numeracy and literacy, when children access education for the first time.

We also have a great track record in our continuing focus on girls' education beyond primary level. In terms the cultural shifts that are required in these countries to eliminate gender violence and empower women to take up their role in society, enterprise and economy, getting them from primary school and all the way through second level education is critical. We have a huge amount of experience in this country of ensuring that educational opportunities at second level and in further education and training respond directly to the needs of the labour market. In Solas we have an expert entity in doing exactly that and we have a lot of knowledge and experience to share.

Deputy O'Sullivan also spoke about the EU trust fund to Africa and expressed concerns about it. This trust fund for stability is addressing the root causes of irregular migration and the displacement of persons in Africa. While we have an emergency humanitarian response to the eventual migration occurring daily, we will never solve the problem unless we examine the underlying root causes. The trust fund is being used to support stability in the north east region of Africa - the Sahel region and Lake Chad area. It is contributing to tackling the root cause of instability, forced displacement and irregular migration.

To date we have disbursed €1.2 million, which has been predominantly earmarked for the Horn of Africa. We are considering economic programmes to create employment opportunities in these regions so that the root cause of young men and women leaving is addressed and employment opportunities are presented to them in their own countries. We are also examining how to address resilience to support basic services for local populations. Again, we are addressing the most vulnerable refugees and displaced persons. We are investigating migration management to prevent irregular migration, fight human trafficking and providing for effective return and readmission.

I visited the refugee camp in Nduta in north west Tanzania where there are 125,000 refugees from Burundi. I wanted to see, in particular, the repatriation and return element of the programme working. We visited that part of the camp where we saw an effective return and repatriation process in place. First, it was determined that each individual was going back of his or her own volition. This had to be made very clear. There was then a programme of support in terms of food, clothing, transport and all the other issues that might arise. The contribution we are making to that trust fund is helping to do that in each particular area.

The Deputy also spoke about doubling the footprint and examining other opportunities. I agree. As well as assuming that doubling our footprint internationally will bring significant economic benefits to Ireland in the future, we also have to consider the strong track record of Irish Aid in our international development work overseas.

One must include the Irish Aid element in any discussion of "doubling Ireland's footprint". The relationships we are building with certain countries, such as that of which I saw evidence on a recent visit to South Africa, and our long track record in supporting the most vulnerable there are beginning to pay dividends in terms of very strong trade relationships developing between those countries and Ireland. For example, there is €1.5 billion of trade annually between South Africa and Ireland. As such counties inevitably make their way toward economic resilience and ultimate economic growth, our relationships with them over the past 50 or 60 years will begin to bear dividends.