Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity to present the 2023 Revised Estimates for the Foreign Affairs group of Votes, comprising Vote 27 - International Co-operation and Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs. I ask members to allow me to repeat our sincere sympathies to all affected by the earthquakes last week in Türkiye and Syria, including employees of the Irish aid agency Goal, and our recognition of all those still working night and day in the rescue efforts.

As the toll of deaths, injuries and destruction rises, I yesterday announced an increased contribution of humanitarian assistance. This brings to €10 million the total Irish response across both countries. The funding is being delivered through Irish non-governmental organisations, NGOs, the United Nations and the International Federation of the Red Cross to reach those most in need as quickly and effectively as possible. We are also sending Ireland's largest ever shipments of emergency stocks, pre-positioned in Dubai and Brindisi.

In my opening comments, I will focus on the key changes and developments in 2023 and will be happy to take questions afterwards. Members will have received the advance briefing notes provided by my Department on the two Votes, summarising the main activities and priorities under each expenditure programme. For 2023, the overall gross Estimate for the foreign affairs group of Votes is €1.057 billion, including a capital allocation of €25 million. This represents an increase of more than €135 million on the initial allocation of €921 million. With the agreement of the committee, I will start with Vote 27.

With the funding allocated to Vote 27, the Department delivers on its high-level goal of working for a more just, secure and sustainable world. We pursue this through our programme of official development assistance, ODA, known to the public as Irish Aid. In 2023, total ODA delivered across the Government will exceed €1.23 billion, an increase of over €188 million, or 18%, on the 2022 initial allocation. This is the highest level ever and the ninth consecutive year in which the overall allocation to ODA has increased. In 2023, just over 58% of total ODA is allocated to the Department to be managed through this Vote. The remainder is managed by other Departments, including Ireland's contribution to the EU's development budget. I should add that the first year of host country refugee costs count as ODA, as determined by the OECD. The significant funding across government to cater for the large numbers of refugees who have sought protection in Ireland had an exceptional impact on ODA levels in 2022 and, most likely, will do so again in 2023.

The allocation to Vote 27 for 2023 totals €715.4 million, representing a significant increase of €111.5 million on 2022 figures. The increased allocation for 2023 is a demonstration of the Government's commitment to reducing global poverty, alleviating suffering and improving the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable communities. International development is not simply the right thing to do but is also a clear and practical protection of our interests. ODA is an integral component of Ireland's overall foreign policy. A Better World, Ireland's policy for international development, continues to provide the framework for our development co-operation programme. It is a whole-of-government policy that affirms Ireland's commitment to realising the central pledge of the sustainable development goals, focusing on the need to protect the most vulnerable in society. We recognise that in a world beset by interlocking crises, fresh thinking is required to achieve these sustainable development goals, their transformative ambition and the call to leave no one behind and reach the further behind first.

Funding administered by the Department under Vote 27 is delivered through a wide range of partners, including NGOs, UN agencies, international organisations and humanitarian agencies. Funding is also delivered through programmes designed and managed by our missions in development countries. These programmes involve close engagement with local, regional and national government systems, aimed at building health, education and local government systems. Ireland's development co-operation will continue to have a primary focus on sub-Saharan Africa and the least developed countries.

Recent years have seen, as we know, a succession of major global shocks. In particular, Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and the Covid-19 crisis have presented enormous development challenges. The steep increase in the price of food, agricultural and energy commodities resulting from these overlapping crises has exacerbated an acute global food security and nutrition crisis. Meanwhile, the adverse effects of climate change continue to intensify and global inequality continues to rise. In the face of these overlapping crises, it is appropriate that we target additional support in these areas.

The breakdown of the €111.5 in additional funding is as follows: some €75 million will be allocated to respond to the impact of the war in Ukraine, including the wider global impacts of the conflict. This will include almost €32 million in direct support to Ukraine and its neighbours. It also includes additional funding to address the deepening global food and nutrition security crisis, which is a priority issue for Ireland. Some €17 million will be allocated towards combating acute child malnutrition and wasting, with a geographical focus on the Horn of Africa and in collaboration with US aid and UNICEF. This is part of Ireland's recent three-year pledge of €50 million to support the global action plan on childhood nutrition and wasting.

Some €25 million of the new funding will be allocated for additional climate finance to address the worsening impacts of climate change and environmental degradation of the world's most vulnerable communities. This is a demonstration of our commitment to fulfil the pledge I made as Taoiseach at COP26 in Glasgow to provide €225 million annually in international climate finance by 2025. We recognise that climate change and extreme weather events are having a more pronounced impact on people and communities living in the least developed countries and other vulnerable contexts, including small island developing states, SIDS. Some €10 million in additional funding will be allocated for Pakistan in response to the continuing humanitarian disaster caused by major flooding last year. This funding is being made available now.

The increased ODA for 2023 will build on €60 million in Supplementary Estimates provided in late 2022. There will be €30 million for Ukraine and Moldova, through Vote 28, and €30 million for the food and nutrition crisis in the Horn of Africa. In 2023, the Department will seek to bring a more strategic focus to work on fragility, conflict resolution and peace and security through the establishment of a new unit, incorporating Vote 27 and 28 functions and expertise. We will also break new ground in our geographic focus, first through a Latin American unit, bringing together our ongoing work in Colombia with new activity in central America. We will also expand the scope of our regional approach in the countries of the Mekong delta. We will also pursue a new strategy for partnership with SIDS, building on the success of the 2019 SIDS strategy.

Ireland has built a distinguished track record in responding to global development challenges and delivering a high-quality, coherent and, crucially, untied approach to development co-operation. The vision outlined in A Better World of an equal, peaceful and sustainable global community reflects our best interests, as well as our values as a people. As a small country with an open economy in an ever more interconnected and uncertain world, our prosperity and safety is intertwined with global events and the fate of the global community. The Irish people can be heartened by what has been achieved by Irish Aid on their behalf in an increasingly challenging and complex global environment.

I will move to Vote 28. For 2023, the total gross expenditure allocation is €340.6 million. This is an overall increase of just over €24 million, or 7.6%. The total allocation is distributed between five strategic programmes and each programme includes pay and non-pay administration costs as well as programme costs. Programme A, which has an allocation of €107 million, an increase of 9.2%, covers many key operational and policy areas for my Department and includes the provision of passport and consular services for our citizens, emigrant and diaspora supports and work to sustain peace and enhance reconciliation and political progress in Northern Ireland, and to increase North-South and British-Irish co-operation. Under this programme, the Department is again being provided with an allocation of €10 million from the Covid contingency fund for the passport service. Demand for passports continues to be strong and following the issuing of an unprecedented 1.8 million passports in 2022, we expect 2023 to be a similarly busy year. In January, the passport service received in excess of 148,000 applications. This is the second highest monthly figure on record, only surpassed in February 2022.

Despite this high demand, all turnaround times are currently at their target level and there are no backlogs. Over the past months my Department has been planning to ensure target processing times are maintained throughout the year. Staffing at the passport service continues to be a priority for my Department and has been kept under constant review. The Department ran 15 competitions over the past two years to address staffing needs in the service and it is actively working to assign new staff. Approximately 100 successful candidates from a temporary clerical officer competition run by the Department are currently going through the Garda vetting process. Furthermore, in the context of the national development plan, the Department continues to modernise and improve the Irish passport as well as the systems that underpin production and service delivery for our citizens. The passport reform programme will encompass the redesign and modernisation of the passport book and card as well as the replacement of existing high-security printing machinery required for passport personalisation. A central project for passport reform is the implementation of a new passport issuance processing system, known as PIPS. This will ensure the passport service remains resilient and agile in response to future passport demand. We are also working on an upgrade to the passport online portal to provide a more user-friendly experience for citizens. We are continuing efforts to significantly reduce the processing times for foreign birth registration applications, which was severely impacted by the pandemic and the high demand for passports. Some 35,000 foreign birth registration applications were processed in 2022 and the processing time was reduced from more than two years to 10 months.

Under this programme additional funding of €500,000 has been provided to establish a new shared island civic society fund. This includes €300,000 transferred form the shared island fund administered by the Department of An Taoiseach. This new initiative aims to promote practical North-South co-operation and end engagement across a range of sectors and themes consistent with the objectives and commitments of the Good Friday Agreement. Some civic society organisations are constituted on an all-island basis such as the major sports governing bodies. Others have formed strong cross-Border partnerships or have members in both jurisdictions. However, in many areas cross-Border civic society interactions are limited or non-existent notwithstanding common circumstances, concerns and interests. The 2023 allocation for Irish immigrant services is increased by €1.3 million to almost €13.9 million. Primarily to take account of the impact of inflation on the operational costs of partner organisations overseas. The immigrant support programme supports the welfare of the Irish abroad with priority given to organisations that support the most vulnerable and marginalised. It also supports cultural, business, and other community activities.

Programme B, which has an allocation of €44.3 million plus 13.3% supports the development of strong relationships with the European Union institutions and other member states aiming,inter alia, to safeguard Ireland's interests in the broad context of Brexit. The programme is also used to ensure Ireland's values and interests are reflected in the development of the EU's common foreign and security policy. In 2023 the budget allocation for EU engagement has been increased by €1 million to just over €2.2 million. This is to fund a programme of events and initiatives around EU 50 marking the historic and transformative decision 50 years ago to join the Union, in addition to increased funding support to European Movement Ireland. We have also allocated an additional sum of €500,000 to an initiative that to seeks to increase the numbers of Irish personnel in EU and international institutions, bringing the total to €3.5 million. It is vital Ireland is represented across the EU's institutions to the largest extent possible and this initiative is designed to double the numbers seconded to the Union over the next three to four years.

Programme C, which has an allocation of almost €64.6 million, that is, plus 3.6%, aims to advance key foreign policy goals of a more just and secure world. It enables us to meet our commitments to fund various regional and international organisations of which Ireland is a member. It allows us to promote human rights globally including to promote conflict resolution, post-conflict reconciliation, and a meaningful engagement of women, youth and civil society in these processes. The bulk of current expenditure under this programme of €40 million is accounted for by contributions to international organisations made by my Department on behalf of the State. Contributions to the UN represent the largest single set of contributions. UN contributions run on a three-year payment cycle and are not evenly spread over the three-year cycle. This year is the second year of the current cycle, which means payments will be somewhat lower than in 2022. Payments to the European Peace Facility, EPF, an EU instrument, to finance actions in the fields of security and defence, are also paid from this subhead. Russia's unprovoked aggression against Ukraine has seen the unprecedented mobilisation of the EPF, with member states agreeing to date to approximately €3.5 billion in commitments to Ukraine under the facility. Ireland's commitment in this regard stands at approximately €77 million limited to non-lethal equipment. Our payments are spread across the life cycle of the EPF, which runs up to 2027. To date, we have contributed approximately €22 million to EPF assistance measures and we estimates that payments totalling approximately €6.8 million will be made in 2023. These figures cover my Department's total contribution to the EPF, including in respect of Ukraine. At this point I have to remind us all that over the past 12 months we have witnessed the most brutal and illegal invasion by Russia of Ukraine with civilian infrastructure decimated and an estimated 14 million people displaced, which is quite a shocking figure when you reflect on it. For the Department of Foreign Affairs this has required significant re-prioritisation and reallocation of resources. Working alongside other parts of government we moved to ensure the swift implementation of unprecedented EU sanctions on Russia. We moved also to deliver urgently needed financial support to Ukraine. We supported Ukraine's application for Union membership and the provision of support to the Ukrainian armed forces via the EPF. We used our seat on the Security Council to push back against Russian disinformation, to defend Ukrainian sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and to demand Russia end its illegal war. We pushed strongly for accountability for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. We are also providing increased financial support to the International Criminal Court for its work on all situations before the court including its significantly increased workload on Ukraine as well as supporting Ukraine's cases before the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.

Programme D, which is an allocation of €47.8 million, plus 7.8%, is focused on leveraging the Department's resources to drive job creation, exports and inward investment, as well as the promotion of Ireland as a destination for tourism and education. The 2023 allocation will allow the Department and its mission network to continue to raise Ireland's profile internationally, support local and regional trade and economic initiatives and organised cultural activities. We will continue to collaborate closely with other Departments and State agencies in this regard. Our annual St. Patrick's Day programme also comes under this programme.

Programme E, which is an allocation of €54.2 million, plus 8.5%, seeks to strengthen our corporate performance or effectiveness with a view to improving public services and supporting departmental staff and their families who are serving the State abroad.The programme also covers communications by the Department of its policies, its objectives and activities to our citizens. The resources for the implementation of the global Ireland 2025 strategy are managed under this programme with additional funding enabling us to strengthen and deepen headquarter support. Last year, new consulates were opened in Miami, Toronto and Lyon. Just last month we established a new embassy in Dakar, Senegal, which provided key support to the recent successful visit by President Higgins to Senegal. Work is advancing on other new missions that have been announced in Islamabad, Milan, Munich and Tehran, to be opened over the coming years.

That was a brief overview of the main activities to be funded from additional resources provided to us in 2023. Of course, there are many areas of work I have not touched on. The scale of the challenges facing the global community and the desire to deliver excellent public services to our citizens means that this year will be at least, at a minimum, as busy as 2022. I welcome any comments or questions from committee members.