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

I thank the members of the committee. It is apparent from each of their contributions that they feel passionately about this subject. I agree completely with Deputy O'Brien's suggestion that the only way this will ultimately work is in collaboration. Members of all parties and Independents need to come together to form a collective view on how to move this in the right direction. We need to move towards a significant and greater contribution from the Irish people to overseas development aid. As Deputy Barrett has pointed out, we need to acknowledge that this contribution can come in many shapes and forms. As we seek to make a significant additional contribution, we need to have substantial ongoing scrutiny and oversight of every cent that is spent. We also need to ensure the money that is spent has a real, legitimate and tangible impact on the lives of people in difficult environments.

Like the members of the committee, my experience to date of travelling overseas has been nothing other than positive in this regard. When I spoke to women in north-west Tanzania who get TASAF payments of €6 a month, I saw the extraordinary impact such payments are having on their families. I travelled to a refugee camp of 125,000 people where children are being educated under trees and noted the presence of the Irish Aid logo at the bottom of a display board outside a new school that is being built 500 m away. I visited a water purification plant that is supplying water to 132,000 people in the refugee camp. I saw the Irish Aid logo and knew that our taxpayers' money and, ultimately, our people are having an impact in this area.

I agree with the remarks of all speakers about the need to make people more aware of the impact of our investment and our people on the ground in these locations. I am trying to do exactly that, predominantly through the use of social media and video. I will continue to do so. Members have done a very good job of using social media in this context. I suggest we need to use this tool to a far greater extent to tell very important stories about the impact of our people and our money in these locations.

I agree with Deputy O'Brien that aiming towards 0.7% in 2030 is a laudable aim. It will involve almost €2.5 billion, which is a very significant amount of money. I support the Deputy's suggestion that it should be done on an incremental basis. This should certainly be explored in the White Paper. I agree that the supplemental three-year increment needs to be looked at because 2030 is a long time away. If we do not make definitive incremental increases in what we provide over the intervening years, we will be going nowhere. This measure should be explored over the coming months as part of the White Paper process.

The Deputy asked how exactly we define overseas development aid. He wanted to know how we ensure there is no encroachment into the very pure definition of overseas development aid. I think such encroachment is unlikely to happen. In all of our discussions about the definition of overseas development aid, our overarching position has been that there is a need to maintain the integrity of overseas development aid as a concept with a distinct focus on development and poverty reduction. That should remain our focus and will remain our focus during the White Paper process. We believe that as the definition is strengthened, there should be a focus on benefitting recipients and targeting the poorest countries.

Deputies O'Brien and Barrett mentioned the issue of oversight, on which we need to focus relentlessly. If the Irish aid programme is to retain the strong credibility it has acquired nationally and internationally, we need to continue to focus on oversight. If possible, we should bring a greater degree of transparency to how our funds are spend and to the oversight associated with such expenditure.

Deputy Crowe spoke about transparency and oversight in the context of the EU. I want to refer specifically to our engagement with the EU because a significant portion of our development budget is channelled through it. Our engagement with an entity of the size of the EU allows us to amplify the impact of our response to all the significant challenges that are arising internationally. EU member states and the European Court of Auditors have generally been positive about the ongoing scrutiny of the EU's overall overseas development aid budget. As the EU's external auditor, the European Court of Auditors acts as an independent guardian of all the financial interests of the citizens of the Union. It checks that EU funds, including those spent on development, are correctly accounted for and spent in compliance with the relevant rules and legislation.

As we know, the UK is not a serious fan of the EU. I would argue that it has never been, to be frank. A review of the UK's multilateral engagement placed the European Development Fund in the top tier of its multilateral development partners and highlighted the fund's positive role in the achievements of poverty reduction and better governance. The UK's own scrutiny of its commitment to EU overseas development aid concluded that this money was well spent.

We are working with the EU and the UN to address the complex situation in the Middle East and Palestine. Our voice is amplified through the EU in putting pressure on Governments to address the many ongoing human rights violations in that region. I would add, based on my experience of visiting Myanmar two weeks ago, that it is only by aligning ourselves with the EU, the UN, the ICRC and other organisations that we can amplify our voice in expressing our very significant concerns about the human rights violations that are occurring in many locations throughout the world. I remind the committee that the UN brought in Kofi Annan to design and recommend a response to the issues in Myanmar. I would argue that having the might and the heft of the UN behind that initiative was a significant factor in pressurising the Myanmar Government to respond in a meaningful way. I hope that will be the case. The solution we must find as we seek to bring about a positive result to all the significant challenges we face in this regard does not involve Ireland or any other country speaking on its own on issues like this as a lone voice in the wilderness.

The Deputy quite rightly pointed out that the situation in Libya is very challenging. Ireland is not currently giving any direct support to Libya. Conditions on the ground are disturbing. We are working with our partners, including the ICRC, the UN and civil society organisations, to make sure real needs are being addressed on the ground and to give people the best possible supports and responses in the context of the difficult circumstances they are facing.

Deputy Barrett mentioned that our missionaries have had an incredible track record of working with communities across the whole of Africa over many decades and rightly pointed out that this footprint is diminishing. We have an opportunity to fill that void and vacuum with young Irish people who are determined to contribute to the elimination of poverty across the world. It is difficult to understand how we can quantify that in the context of our ambition to move towards the 0.7% aid target. Perhaps we need to have that conversation as part of the preparation for the White Paper. The Deputy referred to the significant and beneficial impact of Donogh O'Malley's groundbreaking decision in the 1960s to make secondary education free to everyone and to the lessons we learned from that.

I take his point about capacity building in Africa and working with African governments to share our experience of that journey, from a time when my father could not afford to go to second level school to a point when we have the highest level of third level participation in the whole of the EU. That has been an incredible journey over just two generations. We have a lot to share in that regard.

The point being made was that we can only throw money at a problem for so long without addressing the underlying issues as to why poverty is arising in the first place, and as to why sufficient and high quality educational opportunities are not available to young people in these countries. That 0.7% has never been, and should not be, about simply movements of money to other locations. It is about working with governments in capacity building in education, agriculture, science and technology, which ultimately will empower them to move beyond a time when they need what we describe as traditional overseas development aid supports.

The Chairman spoke about the impact of the visit on him at a personal level, and that is something with which I can empathise. Tanzania was my first time setting foot on the African Continent. In terms of my emotions, I oscillated the whole time between having incredible hope for the future from having met Tanzanian young people, as they were really bright and ambitious and determined to make the very best of their own lives for their communities and country, and then looking at the incredible challenges they face. Many of these challenges are with regard to poor governmental practices and poor politics, and we are working on capacity building with other governments. We need to make people more aware of our commitment and the impact Irish Aid is having.

It is correct that agriculture is a no-brainer, in terms of working with organisations such as Teagasc. The private sector was mentioned. We recently launched a programme between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in terms of supporting and funding Irish agrifood companies to establish a presence on the African Continent. Many exciting things are bound to happen there. Teagasc is a knowledge base that we need to share significantly.

With regard to twining communities, Fingal County Council has a significant relationship with Lesotho, and Athenry, from where I come, has formed a relationship with a village in Kenya called Siminjaro, and through fundraising in Athenry a school and hospital have been built over the past decade. There have been significant opportunities for this in the past.

I have to go and vote. I thank the committee members for their very helpful contributions. The committee will play a major role in the development of the White Paper over the next number of months. I look forward to working with its members.