Mr. Michael Gaffey:

I will respond on Sudan first. The Deputy asked what more Ireland can do.

In the context of humanitarian access and external support, we have to work through a set of different channels. Ireland can act on an individual basis. We have a voice at the United Nations that is strong. We also have a voice in countries across Africa where we have embassies and where we are working in partnership on development assistance. We engage on the humanitarian issue and on the need for a ceasefire at the UN and in Africa directly and bilaterally with relevant governments, urging them to do what they can.

The Tánaiste spoke recently of the need for all of us to have difficult conversations with our friends who may be involved indirectly in the conflict. The commitment the Government has made to raise the issue of Sudan at the UN and within the EU, as well as directly at the United Nations and in our engagement with other African countries like South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya or Egypt, is really important. Evidence of this is the fact that Ireland insisted that Sudan be raised at the European Council meeting last week. That will result in further attention over the coming month. That was something that might seem surprising to some in the European Union, except that Ireland has taken a lead on emphasising Europe's strategic interest, in accordance with its interests and its values, in relationships with Africa. It is clear that Europe and Africa will inevitably have to develop together over the next century. They are neighbours. Africa is in our neighbourhood. If Africa is underdeveloped, that will have an impact on Europe. It is a mutual need to work together, apart from the humanitarian values we espouse and need to work on. Ireland will continue to raise the situation in Sudan and to draw attention to it. There are limits to what you can do on a day to day basis to ease some of the suffering.

The Deputy mentioned gender-based violence. It is important that we are seen to highlight this appalling situation because it is sometimes ignored. We provide funding for work on gender-based violence through organisations like the UNFPA. Ireland has an almost unique arrangement in its GBV consortium, which brings together different Departments, the Defence Forces and all those across Government who have some role in countering gender-based violence. That is another way that governments and NGOs work together to highlight the problems. To work directly on them we do everything we can to work through the UN agencies, but also to get support right down into communities as Ms McHugh was explaining.

The Irish NGOs are important because they can work in the field with Irish aid workers. Concern has people in Chad. GOAL has people in Sudan. They also critically work with local civil society organisations and local communities in Sudan. The partnership Irish Aid has with the Irish development NGOs is absolutely critical. It is probably the strongest partnership that any European country has between government and development NGOs. We are lucky that because of the support of the Irish people there is a strong development sector in Ireland. It is not so strong in some other countries. We are lucky we have a variety of NGOs focusing on different areas of development and we are lucky we have such strong support for a humanitarian response. The funding mechanisms we have put in place in recent years respond to this need to work flexibly across long-term and immediate needs and to ensure funding is not siloed and there is flexibility in how it is used. The Irish civil society partnership, which is the funding mechanism for the large ten NGOs, includes both development and humanitarian funding and allows for flexible use of that funding so there can be a quick response to emergencies without having to go through cumbersome procedures to transfer from one stream of funding to another. That funding amounts to approximately €100 million per year, with additional funding for individual emergencies.

The Deputy raised the critical point of how you respond to everything that is happening in the world. The truth is that you cannot. You have to prioritise. You will miss out on some. However, as Ms McHugh said, it is important that Ireland has made a point of insisting that we will always fund some forgotten emergencies that are not receiving attention. Even when we were providing additional funding for Gaza, we made sure to provide something for Sudan. We will also make sure to see what we can do on the situation in Myanmar, which has fallen completely out of the headlines. There is also Yemen, which is the poorest country in the Middle East, and has suffered from conflict, famine, hunger and interference from its neighbours for years. We make a point of ensuring that the conflict in Yemen is not forgotten. Inevitably, however, we have to focus at times more strongly on some conflicts than others. In Gaza, for instance, since the start of 2023 we have provided more than €61 million in assistance for the Palestinian people, which is significantly higher than it would have been in previous years. There is a commitment from Government to continue to do so, but it is undoubtedly difficult with limited budgets. Every budget is limited in order to be able to ensure that the level of humanitarian need receives the response it deserves.

In addition, the Irish people have been responding and the Irish NGOs have in recent weeks been making appeals in respect of Sudan, Gaza and Lebanon. It is also important that the people are responding directly as well as us responding with taxpayers' money that we have been asked, and have the honour, to manage. We have a budget next year in Irish Aid of €810 million. That is the highest level it has ever been since the programme was set up, but it would not be right to devote all of that to humanitarian funding. We have to have a balance between development funding, humanitarian funding and what is needed for the overall existential threat of climate change. All I can say is that we are working hard to ensure as integrated an approach as we can, rather than siloed approaches to that funding. Fundamentally, our funding decisions are based on need above all.