Dr. Chris O'Connell:

Ireland has a long record, particularly in its foreign policy and the work of Irish Aid, in the role of civil society in promoting sustainable development, human rights, ensuring accountability and supporting effective states and functioning markets. That is something Ireland backs up in its ODA. There is a lot of funding that goes to civil society and considerable support for civil society. We have assurances that is to continue at a foreign policy level, which we are very pleased about. However, when it comes to what the omnibus is doing in stripping out meaningful stakeholder engagement, taking away the possibility for representative actions and leaving a lot of vulnerable, marginalised communities including women, indigenous people and human rights defenders far more exposed and alone than they need to be, Ireland has a track record to point to and can and should speak up.