Mr. Ruair? de B?rca:

I absolutely agree with the Deputy on the importance of investment in sustainable food systems across Africa. Last year the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine committed to invest €800 million to 2027 in development assistance for sustainable food systems globally.

We are backing that up with an interdepartmental group which brings in agribusiness, universities, NGOs, Bord Bia and Sustainable Food Systems Ireland in order that there is a coherent Irish offer. There is a coherent Irish offer to countries on the continent of Africa, in order that we can build and share and learn how to do climate-smart agriculture that gives everybody quick nutrition wins.

We are looking at certain areas of Irish expertise, in particular, including good seeds. In Ireland, one gets approximately 16 tonnes of potatoes per hectare in productivity. In Kenya, one gets about 5 tonnes. We are sharing our expertise, not just on seeds, but on storage and value chains, so that it is also about value addition in business. We are doing that but there is more we can do and there are more partnerships we can build with the Irish farming sector on that. We are on a journey. We also have a small scheme between our Department and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, where we provide seed capital for Irish agribusiness to look at business opportunities in Africa in partnership with African companies. That is part of that journey.

I will pick up on the Deputy point about Egypt. I had a conversation last night with an Egyptian lady who was here yesterday and who met colleagues in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine precisely to look at where partnerships could be taken forward between Ireland and Egypt around better food, with a view to doing something in advance of the Sharm el-Sheikh Conference of the Parties, COP, climate change conference in November.

We are trying to use the aid programme as smartly as we can both to find opportunities for Ireland and to address the global food crisis. While we have to invest in systems to get better food to grow, there is an emerging hunger crisis because of what is going on in Ukraine, specifically in the Horn of Africa about which some Deputies got a briefing in the past week or two. Over the past 18 months, we have invested €48 million through the aid programme in the humanitarian response there and a further €12 million in trying to address those longer-term strategic food supply issues. We are on it.