Mr. Eamonn Casey:

Deputy Crowe asked about best practice and standards versus unique approaches. In a way, it is a bit of both. Misean Cara has three pillars that we always try to support through members. One is equitable access, while another is a constant focus on quality. This is demand-driven because it comes from the students, especially the girls, their parents and the communities. If we improve the quality, people see that merit and are more interested in going there. Another pillar is system strengthening. Much of that is about having advocates and champions and building the relationships about which Sr. Tunney spoke. This involves low and slow work. Much of it involves advocating for girls, inclusion and people with disabilities - those furthest behind and Leave No One Behind, as the sustainable development goals asked us to do.

Senator Bacik asked whether there are particular things we can think of regarding funding and policy. One thing that is really important and that was also mentioned by Deputy Barrett is investment. The 0.7% commitment is a really important aspect that has not gone away. It is particularly important for Leave No One Behind and the farthest-behind-first agendas, which are integral to international development policy. In respect of some of the countries about which we are talking, which are really poor, along with really poor or hard-to-reach places within countries or really poor contexts or cohorts of population that are very hard to reach, their governments cannot or will not fund education. This is where ODA funding really comes into play. It is same kind of funding that Ireland got from the EU as a disadvantaged country when it was needed. It is not really aid, it is investment in people, the planet and the future, which we really need, and within that, continued commitment to untied aid, poor countries and, as we have recently seen, investment in public education and initiatives of the education cannot wait type. In terms of policy, there is a balance between putting money into multilateral arrangements, which are certainly important, and global funds and supporting some of the NGOs and the work of missionaries, who are sometimes better able to deliver for way-off-the-tarmac people, namely, those who live in rural areas and are isolated. Typically, these people are not reached by big multilateral programmes. They are usually reached by slow, incremental and committed work over many years, which is the type of work Irish missionaries and NGOs do. A policy balance needs to be struck regarding where we put our education funding.