Mr. Dominic Crowley:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. We could spend days talking about any one of them. Maybe I will touch on the last of them, which concerned the issue of Ukraine and Gaza. It was probably late last year that Ireland was one of the member states – I believe there were six – that wrote to the ECHO Commissioner or DG ECHO to question the allocation of funding and the disproportionate draw on funding by Ukraine and suggest there needed to be a better balance of funding allocations. The Ukraine facility was intended to address some of that so much of the ongoing support needed by Ukraine would be taken away from the humanitarian budget, allowing the balance of funding to go to other conflict-affected contexts. The reality is that the conflict in Ukraine is now at a very precarious juncture. What we are seeing on the ground is the internal displacement of more and more people from the east and the areas around Kharkiv. The situation will get worse. Politically, Ms von der Leyen’s stated commitment to establishing a defence Commissioner within the new Commission will pose interesting challenges and questions for Ireland.

It will give rise to questions on budget allocations that will make funding for humanitarian and development expenditure even more complicated and difficult. Against that, we have the Eurobarometer reports, which consistently state that between 80% and 85% of the European public are fully in support of the EU having a strong development budget and strong support. There is probably a broadly comparable level in Ireland, maybe slightly less. Where it is contentious is that we have so many competing demands, but if it is the public will, then the political will needs to be found to ensure that-----