Ms Mary Van Lieshout:

I thank the members for their questions. On the debt rescheduling, which is often the most traditional response from the global north to global southern debt, what we are arguing for is an open renegotiation and cancellation of that debt. I cannot speak to the question of what we know about the impact of such cancellation. A number of Dóchas members have done some research in this area, Oxfam in particular. We can certainly bring that to the committee's attention.

We know that rescheduling is not addressing the problem and that the conditions usually attached to the Bretton Woods institutions - by the IMF, in particular - often include public cutbacks. We know the story. We have had it here in terms of public cutbacks in essential services and fees right at the point of entry for schools and health services. All of those are extremely detrimental. Cutbacks in social protection measures are extremely detrimental to the lives of low-resource families and communities. We know that the traditional methods will not work in this crisis. We need to respond to the tripling of these debt ratios over the Covid period. We can bring some of that back to the committee, particularly as it prepares to meet the Minister for Finance prior to the SDG summit. We can certainly bring to the committee some concrete examples on the ground.

I thank Deputy Stanton for his question on Sudan. We understand the issue in Sudan has risen over the past weeks. GOAL has been working in Sudan since 1985. We have approximately 260 staff there. We have regular reports and regular contact with our staff many times each day since the fighting has broken out. Some of the members will have heard and understood through the news that it looks like approximately 2,000 people have been injured and 200 have died. There is huge heavy fighting and threats to civilian safety at this stage. I understand from our security briefings that things are likely to resolve in Khartoum but continue in the rural areas. It is not located only in Khartoum. The airports have been closed. They could have opened even in the past hours but airports have been closed. Fighting is happening and civilians and our staff, and indeed staff of other humanitarian agencies, are all in lockdown at this stage. It is a very important and sad development for the people of Sudan. It is a poor part of the world. As the committee knows so very well, all of east Africa is facing chronic food shortages. Any kind of conflict that disrupts livelihoods is just a further exacerbation in the lives of families and communities. This is a story that is going to stay with us because it does not look like there is an easy solution to this. We can certainly keep the committee apprised on that, however.