David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I welcome our guests. I note from the statement that 40% of the population is under 14 years of age. I believe 21% of the population in Ireland is under 14 years of age, so that is extraordinarily high. Are there any particular reasons for that? Have the adults left or why is that the case? The figure is extraordinarily high.

Mr. McLaughlin also mentioned that Irish Aid is working with some Israeli NGOs. Perhaps he will say a little more about that. I am sure I am right in saying that not everyone in Israel agrees with what is happening with demolitions, the forced movement of people and so forth. He might say a little about the other side of Israel, whether there are people we know of there who are opposed to this and the NGOs the programme is working with. He also mentioned there are 5.7 million refugees in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. I take it that many of those are Syrian refugees from the other awful conflict across the border. Do we know how many of them are Palestinians? Mr. McLaughlin mentioned that we contribute to the EU fund mechanism PEGASE. Will he say a little more about how much we contribute to that fund mechanism and the work it does?