Mr. Dominic MacSorley:

Good morning everybody. I thank the Chairman and the clerk to the committee for facilitating this important discussion at such a critical time in the budget 2022 negotiations. Our core message is Ireland’s aid is not only a lifeline for millions of people but it is also an investment in a better, more peaceful, world. Its impact cannot be underestimated and it is needed now more than ever.

The pandemic has been a brutal reminder of our collective vulnerability and interdependence. Concern is an organisation that is hard-wired to respond to emergencies but we had never had to deal with a crisis that affected all of our country programme and home offices at the same time. However, our commitment to stay and deliver during crises held strong and we had three key priorities, namely, to protect the health and safety of our 4,000 staff, to adapt our ongoing programmes to keep them operating to the fullest extent possible and to scale up Covid prevention messages across all the communities we work with. For example, we installed 1,200 extra water and sanitation stations inside Syria. We distributed soap and clean water to 600,000 displaced people in South Sudan, where Ms Soma is working.

We work closely with the ministry of education in Sierra Leone to ensure that children can continue their education remotely. With our partners, we provided Covid prevention training and messaging to close to 20 million last year. Closer to home, we were able to allow 9,300 Irish students to continue the school debates programme online. All of these programmes were supported by Irish Aid. Central to our ability to pivot and be flexible was the flexibility and adaptability of the Irish Aid team, whose members worked tirelessly and were phenomenally supportive of all agencies in enabling us to respond so effectively.

To say that the pandemic has been devastating for the poorest people is an understatement. There is a crisis on every level - health, gender-based violence, education, livelihoods, peace and, most important, hunger and a deepening inequality, which are disproportionately affecting women and children. Late last year, we were part of a global survey of 16,000 households across 25 countries that looked at the impact of Covid across multiple levels. What was notable was the direct impact of lockdowns on women working in the informal sector, who repeatedly stated that, if they did not work that day, they would not eat that night. Some 60% of women had cut meals, mothers were eating less and last, and violence against women and children was spiralling, in some cases by a factor of four. A staggering 270 million people are estimated to be acutely food insecure or at high risk. That is an 81% increase since the onset of Covid. The figures are mind numbing and staggering.

As Ms de Barra stated, we cannot blame Covid for everything. Climate change has played a key role. The 43 countries most at risk were all experiencing conflict-induced hunger before the pandemic. In most of the countries where we are working, conflict is a key driver of food insecurity. In Somalia, 3 million people are in integrated food security phase classification, IPC, 3. This means that food consumption gaps are widening, matched with increased levels of acute malnutrition. This is due to a combination of failed rains, conflict and a population that is still dealing with the impact of locusts.

Haiti is in the news due to the assassination of its President. Prior to that, 12% of its population were classified as being in emergency phase 4. This means high levels of acute malnutrition and excess mortality. People had already started desperately selling off whatever assets they had. Haiti, which Ireland has consistently supported for many years, is a country that has been in decline, but there was also a poor harvest last year. The lack of remittances as a result of Covid became a key contributor. Haiti is a classic example of the UN humanitarian appeal, which is a modest $235 million but is only 5.4% funded. That is shocking, given the level of need. Sadly, we know that these figures will get worse. September to December will be a tough time for people who are depending on harvests. With the Covid crisis deepening, the number of new cases is doubling every 18 days, with less than 2% of the population fully vaccinated.

Some front-line staff working with agencies in Liberia have got their vaccines. Others were told yesterday that they would not get their second doses until August because supplies had run out. These are the people who are treating cases.

The level of need is increasing and the level of funding relative to those needs is down. The global humanitarian appeal of $35 billion is just 25% funded, which is the lowest we have seen and we are only mid-year. Fortunately, Irish Aid, the EU and USAID are three of the key donors that have stayed the course and increased funding in response to the large-scale humanitarian crisis. Unfortunately, we are not seeing the same from others, notably the UK, whose recent cuts to aid already amounted to £5 billion this year. I know that Trócaire and GOAL have been affected. For us, we are looking at cuts of more than $8 million across Malawi, Sierra Leone and Bangladesh with little notice and dire consequences for the poorest communities.

We must ensure that this does not happen again. We recognise that this is a difficult message to send home because there are significantly increased needs at home, but it is an even more important message now. For this reason, we must not just highlight to the public, the voters and the media the urgency of the crisis we are facing, but also the positive impact that aid is having. An important part of that message is the good news story of prevention and how timely and effective interventions can prevent the horrific images of starvation and suffering.

It was in July 2011 that the world saw the first famine of the 21st century. Former President Mary Robinson travelled to Somalia with RTÉ, Concern, GOAL and Trócaire. She sat and listened to the stories of affected families of leaving children and older people behind in order to save the rest of the family. More than 260,000 people lost their lives tragically in what was a slow and underfunded response. Five years later, humanitarian actors used improved early warning systems, built with the support of Irish Aid, to respond to and avert four large-scale famines in north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. This was a phenomenal achievement in terms of early warning and early action. It is important that we remember Ireland's essential role in preventing crises and famines and fighting hunger. It is not just a policy strategy. It is in our DNA and has allowed us to have the foresight to provide solidarity to people caught up in crisis.

We must also remember that Ireland is one of the few donors that provide multi-annual funding in humanitarian crises, a decision that changes and saves lives. I saw this first hand in the Central African Republic. It is a country where 2 million people depend on humanitarian aid but there is a shortfall of approximately 60% in humanitarian funding. Ireland is providing Concern and other Irish agencies in the Central African Republic with a five-year funding timeframe. Do committee members know how that changes conversations when we go into communities, say that we will be there for the next five years, we have the backing of the Irish people and we do not have to worry about being gone in six months' time because we could not find additional funding, and we can sit down with the communities to discuss how to plan with them to change the situation positively? It is transformative. The ministry in the Central African Republic asked us not just to tell the Irish people "Thank you", but to tell the other donors that this mattered. We are telling them. We are rightly promoting Ireland's reputation globally.

Ireland is not the largest donor, but it is one of the most respected for being principled and meeting the highest standards of accountability and effectiveness. The Irish Aid team's level of demand for accountable and quality programmes has made what each of our agencies is doing stronger. Its partnership is deep and demanding, but it is focused on where need is greatest and is connected to and informed by the realities on the ground. There is a uniquely Irish aspect to the relationship. It means that Concern and other agencies have direct and open access to senior Irish diplomats and trusted and confidential briefings on highly sensitive situations. I received a phone call out of the blue from H.E. Geraldine Byrne Nason, who was about to go into a sanctions committee. She wanted to know what the impact of the sanctions would be on humanitarian operations in Somalia and North Korea. She told me that she was going into the meeting in half an hour, that she wanted the data and that she wanted to say that she had spoken to the relevant people. That is exactly the kind of relationship that has an impact. It connects policy level to the ground, bringing authenticity and integrity to every conversation. This represents real partnership in action. I commend the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and its commitment to securing peace and addressing conflict as part of its tenure on the Security Council. I also commend the team behind Irish Aid on the important role they play.

It is easy to get overwhelmed by the level of global need, but we have learned over the past year or two that human progress is not inevitable. We have also learned that we are returning to a world we thought we had left behind. Extreme poverty has increased for the first time in 20 years and famine, something that we believed had been consigned to history, is back.

However, history does not have to repeat itself. Ensuring solidarity is essential in that effort. Ireland's international aid programme is part of that solidarity and global leadership and a commitment to a better world. I thank the committee for its time and its commitment to this issue. I ask my colleagues here today to advocate for the necessary cross-Government support for Ireland's overseas aid programme.