Mr. Niall Tierney:

As the director general laid out, the fellowships programme is continuing as Irish Aid enters its 50th year. Over recent years, a number of actions have been taken to expand it. It is undoubtedly one of the most popular programmes. If any committee members have visited any of the partner countries with departmental support, it has most likely arisen in their bilaterals. It is highly valued. Students mostly came from Africa over the first three and a half decades of the programme, but decisions were taken in 2019-20 to expand the intake to the occupied Palestinian territories.

In 2021, in line with the first SIDS strategy, as regards master's level students from the small island developing states, and in 2023-24, in line with our Latin American-Caribbean strategy, it was extended to incorporate students coming from those areas as well. It reflects one of the strongest people-to-people relationships we can have. The competition to access the Irish fellowship is enormous. The quality of students who come to interview is humbling for any of us who have been involved in the recruitment process. These are people who will go back into their own systems and most likely become leaders, whether in public positions or economic positions. One of the things on which we are working this year, and on which a partner has been engaged to support, is investing in the alumni network to try to draw people together in order that they feel part of a global system, rather than just the cohort that has returned to a given country. Politically, at the moment, what has been most harrowing and touching at the same time is that it has been very difficult, understandably, to progress the occupied Palestinian territories round for 2024-25. The decision was made, however, to go ahead and extend that. Interviews were undertaken in recent weeks and 100% of the candidates from Gaza were able to partake in their interviews - some from bombed-out buildings and some from press vans - to try to secure themselves positions. We currently have 22 fellows in country, 11 from Gaza and 11 from the West Bank, and we hope that a similar window can be filled.

There is a lot of demand across our embassy network from other countries that are not involved. The policy or the strategy target of 210 fellows studying at Irish high-level education institutes was reached in the 2022-23 intake, but we are in an active review to see whether that could be extended. We currently have 206 fellows in country at the moment.