Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for letting me in early. I thank Mr. Drummond for his excellent presentation and commend him on all the great work. Like other members of the committee, I am very familiar with the work the ONE Foundation has been doing for such a long time. It is terrific. I also thank him for giving us such a succinct presentation on the need to ensure we move to 0.7%. As Mr. Drummond knows, we are carrying out an overview of Irish Aid and our overseas development aid programme generally. We have heard, as Mr. Drummond suggested, the point from Government that we cannot afford 0.7% in good times because the economy is growing too fast and it represents too much. That is putting it bluntly, albeit the Government stated it somewhat more diplomatically. I am glad Mr. Drummond made the point that it is not really a logical response. I am also glad he emphasised Ireland's leverage through multilateral mechanisms, which is something on which we have been focusing. We are looking at our overseas development aid programme in terms of both our bilateral links and what we contribute through multilateral programmes. Clearly, there is an importance attached to both. I am grateful for the presentation and I apologies for the fact that I cannot stay to hear the full responses.