Ms Niamh Garvey:

Senators Lawless and Lawlor both made the connection between awareness on the part of the Irish public and Irish people acting as global citizens. Beyond the support given to the official development assistance, ODA, programme or the SDGs, that means being actively concerned and involved in some of these global issues. That can be a counterpart to some of the more worrying trends we are seeing in the US and across Europe, the changing attitudes and retreat from human rights norms. One of Dóchas's central messages to Irish Aid as we develop our new international development policy is about the need to maintain the core principles and values at the heart of the Irish Aid programme. Irish Aid is consistently ranked the highest in development effectiveness, quality poverty focus, 100% untied grant aid etc. That really needs to stay at the heart of the programme.

I have had the pleasure of attending a number of public consultations as part of the process. The Irish public is very proud of that aspect of the Irish aid programme. That is something to build on. In the submissions of Dóchas and Trócaire to the White Paper consultation we acknowledged that Irish Aid has become a reputable leader in the area of development education. That concerns engaging the Irish public about these issues at a really meaningful level. In the context of populism and isolationism, we really encourage Irish Aid to build on that reputation and continue to invest in development education as part of the Irish Aid programme. We have suggested putting 3% of the ODA spend towards development education.