Ms Karol Balfe:

We want the amount going to civil society to increase but the funding from Irish Aid that goes to civil society is very good quality. I was in Nepal with Irish Aid in February visiting some of the communities and partners we fund. That was the mechanism to make sure the money is going where it should, holding us to account and engaging with the community. The communities we work with are extraordinarily marginalised women. There are lots of different ethnic groups that face huge discrimination. Women, societally, could not even speak in public. We have been working with local community groups around gender-based violence and women's economic empowerment. Irish Aid was there monitoring that and the accountability. There are very high standards of accountability for the money that goes there. As a donor, Irish Aid is focused on reaching the furthest behind first. Nepal is not a country that comes to most people's minds but it is extremely vulnerable to the climate crisis. There is a huge level of gender-based violence and debt - 56% of Nepal's money is spent repaying debt. It is hard to separate those issues. To answer Deputy Brian Brennan's question, this is where the issue of injustice manifests in interest repayment. Counter to the logic of what one might expect, that the interest rate should be around 0%, it is extortionately higher than that of rich countries with debt such as the US and UK. An African country could pay up to 12% interest whereas Germany pays 0.8% and the US 2.3%.

Therefore, it is one of the fundamental issues of injustice concerning debt. Companies are making huge profits and that is why we are seeing the growth of creditors. To address this huge injustice, engagement and a global system are absolutely required.