Ms Caoimhe de Barra:

I will address the questions on fundraising, vaccines and priorities. On fundraising, to follow on from what Mr. MacSorley said, what we have witnessed to our surprise, at least initially, has been an outpouring of support and solidarity from the Irish public. Across the country, people have recognised that while the Covid pandemic is having a devastating impact on us in Ireland, personally and in our everyday lives, it is far more acute overseas. As several members said, it is ultimately far more damaging in the long term for people living in communities in fragile states, particularly in conflict-affected states. The generosity of the public at a time like this has been phenomenal.

Our fundraising has changed but it has remained strong. This sends an important signal that the public are fully behind overseas development work. They have demonstrated their solidarity in a practical way over the past year by donating directly to organisations such as Trócaire, Concern and others. We know from the research that Dóchas has done that 77% of the public say that development assistance is important. This is an example of a case where perhaps the public are ahead of the political decision-making. The public are backing the kind of work we do and understand that Covid's impact and the impacts of climate change are far more significant overseas, even while we have to support those who are vulnerable at home.

That is important and I would underline what several members said, which is that there is a need for a roadmap that will get us to 0.7% of GDP by 2030. Within the lifetime of this Government, we need to see a commitment to an interim target, which is solid and which will ensure that we are taking a stepwise approach year-on-year with meaningful incremental increases and that do not suddenly push the burden of increasing aid to later in the day when another Government might be in place.

In Dóchas, we believe that there needs to be a commitment to 0.5% by 2025 and that every budget should have an incremental step that builds gradually and sustainably towards that point.

Everybody appreciates how shocking the vaccine inequity is. It is palpable, tangible and deplorable. It impacts on our staff and the communities that we are working with. People are dying needlessly of Covid. While here in Ireland, there is a successful and welcome roll-out of the vaccine, can any of us live with the fact that across the world, over 50% of the global population has received one vaccine but in low income countries, only 1% of the population has received a vaccine? In Ireland, we are up to 70%, which is welcome, but 1% of the population of low-income countries are currently vaccinated. I underscore the point that Ms Soma makes, which is it that it is not just about access to the vaccines right now, although that is critically important. The TRIPS waiver is a priority. If there is a temporary waiver through the World Trade Organization TRIPS mechanism, there is capacity to scale up the production of vaccines. That is known and documented. We believe that Ireland should take a strong position at the WTO, aligned with many other countries that see the need, the moral imperative and the logic, for our own sake, of scaling up vaccine production worldwide.

Health systems need to be strengthened, which is a long-term investment that speaks to the need for 0.7% and the multi-annual approach. If Ireland is able to commit to a stepwise approach to funding over the next five or ten years and to working with partner countries and agencies such as us and the United Nations, we can build stronger health systems that will be more resilient to future health crises. The reality is that crises will continue to happen. Covid is the latest and the most visible. In the countries that we and Ms Soma work in, health systems are under severe strain at the best of times. They need a long-term investment which can only happen through a long-term commitment to aid.

On the question about other priorities beyond increasing overseas development assistance, climate is one. Everybody's intervention today has referred to climate and the importance of addressing climate justice, climate inequality and the impacts of climate. Ms Keatinge said that one of her requests is that there should be dedicated additional targeted funding for climate financing. That is an important message to come from this committee if possible. That would demonstrate that we are adherent in our approach as a country and that in going into the negotiations, Ireland is demonstrating its commitment through its aid budget and through the legislation which I hope will be passed and meet the high standards, with the latest amendments improving it, and that Ireland is prepared to face the reality that there will be significant changes in everything we do. We will embrace those changes because we recognise our global responsibility regarding climate.

The global economy is another priority and what form its recovery takes. The global economy is crucial to recovery and the livelihoods of millions of people who are part of supply chains in developing countries. There is a significant risk now that those supply chains will become more dangerous places for people to work and for the communities affected by them over the coming years, because of the impact of Covid and because people and governments are more vulnerable. Governments are less likely to be able to stand up to take a strong stance on the standards of implementation that need to be in place. This Government needs to look at human rights in business and to welcome, embrace and even get ahead of the legislation movement coming from Europe about mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence. That would demonstrate policy coherence for development across the board in Ireland.

We mentioned the UN Security Council and Ireland's seat on it a number of times in this meeting. It is extremely important. For the next 18 months, we continue to have an opportunity to be courageous, principled and effective at the UN Security Council. Ireland has already stepped up to the mark in a number of difficult situations. The importance of Ireland's success, together with Norway and others, with the Syria cross-border resolutions, cannot be overstated. Ireland needs to continue, with the full support of the entire Government, to dedicate every resource possible to its work at the UN Security Council to prevent and resolve conflict for all the reasons that we heard earlier. It needs to focus in particular on the protection of women, girls and other people who are vulnerable to gender-based violence in conflict.

Ireland can be a strong voice for climate security at the UN Security Council, potentially including during its presidency. It is contingent on passing the strongest possible version of the climate legislation that is currently before the Oireachtas.