Ms Áine Hearns:

I thank the Senator for the question. As Ms Owen has pointed out, the oversight group is just that and funding for anything we do comes from the secretariat, which is based in the conflict resolution unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Our costs are relatively low in running the committee and certainly since the onset of Covid-19 we have been unable to do any sort of external visits. The allocation has been quite low as a result.

The secretariat for the oversight group sits in the conflict resolution unit and I am the director of that unit. As our chair has mentioned, it is a 50:50 oversight group, with 50% from government and 50% from civil society, academia and independents. It is chaired independently by Ms Owen as well. Every quarter we meet and the group is given an update on what is happening across government with the women, peace and security agenda as outlined in the actions we have all committed to in the national action plan. Members have seen from the report we have submitted a monitoring framework at the back showing where we are with those actions. It is a traffic light system demonstrating where actions have started, completed and ongoing. The oversight group gets very up-to-date information.

Funding the WPS agenda has been a major issue, not just domestically in Ireland but internationally. There are arguments for and against having a specific women, peace and security budget line. Our view is that having a specific budget line could limit the work we are trying to do. As Ms Owen has mentioned, we are trying very much to mainstream the WPS agenda right across all our work, both here in the Department of Foreign Affairs and the other represented Departments and agencies, including the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Department of Justice, the Department of Defence and An Garda Síochána. The idea is that the women, peace and security agenda would become an integral part of all our Government's policies and we must proofread those policies to ensure the WPS agenda is actioned. By doing that, we are increasing the budget going to these areas. We have found that happening over the years.

We have also been doing some training. For example, in the Department of Foreign Affairs when anybody is going on a posting abroad, there is training about what the WPS agenda is, how to look out for it and ensure it can be promoted and prioritised. We have some focus countries in that regard. Again, across other Departments we are rolling out some training around the monitoring framework in the coming months to ensure everybody knows what is expected of them, what the WPS agenda is about and how they can identify, promote and move it forward. In that way, we will see significant increases in funding coming through in the next couple of years.

One example is a programme financed by the civil society fund in Yemen, which members know is a country in conflict and the women, peace and security agenda has been a key focus of political statements around that. It is €1.3 million going to Saferworld to work again with grassroots women, making them aware and politically active in the peace process. It is empowering young women as well. That is one example but there are many others as well. It is the best way of showing how we are moving this agenda forward and getting more funding to it.