Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The reason it is coming from Vote 27 is the vast majority of funding we spend in Colombia goes through Vote 27 and that is why the funding for the premises there would tend to come from that. I have been in some of the countries I have been privileged to visit in Africa this year. I found the majority of embassy staff are directly involved in the projects on the ground. In some countries, much is done through NGOs. In others, we do not have a good NGO presence. Sometimes 50% of the embassy work is directing projects on the ground. There is often a case to be made that we are more a humanitarian, relief and overseas development agency than an embassy. In some countries, it is a combination of both. Because the majority of the funding is for overseas aid, that is where this building comes out of at this stage.