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

I apologise for being late but I have read the submissions that were sent to us. I place the word "coherence" in the context of Tuesday evening's launch of the Irish Aid report, which I attended. The question I asked there of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney, concerned the debate we were having last night on double taxation. We know Irish aid is effective and is making a difference but, on the other hand, unless we get right the bits that do not fit into the jigsaw of coherence, we will not be able to get to the end point, which is Irish aid and all aid doing itself out of a job. One of the ways to do that is through developing world countries' ability to raise their own taxes and to sign treaties, like the double taxation treaty with Ghana we were debating last night, in a way that is beneficial to the developing countries. However, we know from what we have seen, and some NGOs are doing great work on this, that it does not appear to be beneficial to Ghana in the way it should be. For example, there are particular examples which suggest that what Ireland will get is much better than what Ghana will get in regard to royalties.

This brings in another issue which I believe NGOs could take up, namely, the arms trade. To take the EU, the figure at the back of the Irish Aid report was for more than €70 billion in EU funding over a wide variety of areas, yet none of the SDGs will be realised unless we have peace. Therefore, as the money is going out with one hand, those countries that are or were major donors are raking it in from the arms trade. I do not think we are strong enough in making those points and while President Michael D. Higgins has made the point, this is something the NGOs and civil society have to talk about much more.

On coherence, we are not doing well and, at times, we are doing the easy bit. That is not to say it is not making a difference - of course, it is. What is great about Irish Aid is the way in which it works with local communities. It is not coming in and telling people what to do but working with them. It is about local empowerment. However, unless we get the other two bits right, it is not good enough.