Mr. Paul Healy:

It is a pleasure to be here and I thank members for taking the time. Every week over the past six weeks I have been in Gedo and every week, I have seen children die or have heard the following morning that a child had died during the night. Every week we are hearing of mothers and children coming into Dolow and Luuq in Gedo, having walked for a week or two weeks and barely having enough strength to get to our facilities. Children have died on their way and have been buried on the side of the road in shallow graves because the parents or the mother is too weak to dig a deeper grave. The situation is apocryphal and it is catastrophic. In this day and age, it is a complete political failure and more needs to be done.

In 2011 we said, “Never again”. Political leaders, UN agencies and others said, “This will never happen again”. Now in 2022, it is happening all over again. It is a political failure. We are appreciative of the steps and the leadership taken by the Irish Government and Irish Aid in supporting the crisis in east Africa but more still needs to be done. One would hope that there is leadership for Europeans and others in the global north to address this crisis. Already we are too late for thousands and thousands of people who are going to die in the coming weeks or have died in the past few weeks. Women and children in particular bear the brunt of this. Over 80% of the people coming into internally displaced camps are women and children. They are exposed to significant malnutrition as well as the risks of sexual exploitation and abuse. Half a million children are currently starving in Somalia and 1.8 million children are reaching that point, along with 500,000 mothers who are pregnant or lactating and are struggling to survive and unable to feed their children.

A large reason for this is that climate change has not been properly addressed. We have seen over years and years the global north exploiting the resources of this planet. The people of Somalia have done little to contribute to that and yet there is little or no compensation to the Somali people for the consequences that they are now facing. Some 3 million livestock animals have already died in Somalia. A whole way of life has been destroyed. It is simply unacceptable in this day and age to stand back and to not take heed of the consequences of our actions over decades.

There are solutions to this if we act now. Immediately, there are life-savings solutions. We are deeply appreciative of the leadership and support of the Irish Government, the Irish public and Irish Aid but other long-term solutions need to be put in place that I hope COP27 will address and in which the Irish Government will take an active part. As already has been said, we need multi-annual and predictable funding for durable solutions for sustainable livelihoods to try to address the impoverishment of people in the global south, particularly here in the Horn of Africa, where whole livelihoods have been destroyed and possibly forever. I also appeal to the Irish Government to consider again the commitments that we have made over decades to the 0.7% of GNI. While the current response is deeply appreciated, we can do more as Irish people. The idea is in our DNA and in our historical memory that the poorest, the most marginalised and the most left behind should not be forgotten. I make the passionate plea to the Members of the Oireachtas and to all the Irish public to take leadership and to show the compassion that is our historical right and is in our memory.