Mr. Dominic Crowley:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. It is probably the most important question we struggle with every single year. There is never enough money and you end up having to make strategic decisions. Broadly speaking, if you have this principled humanitarian aid and you start with the principle of impartiality, which means your aid goes where it is needed most, you end up delivering aid to the contexts that are most impacted. Approximately 80% of humanitarian aid goes to conflict contexts. The intersection between conflict and climate change is becoming narrower or greater and greater. We are seeing more and more overlap between contexts that are affected by both climate change and conflict.

Going back to Deputy Lahart's question, if we are seeing further cuts in aid, instability, insecurity and further migration because most countries are cutting their aid budget, we are just storing up a greater security problem. The Deputy's question on whether we are really trying to protect what we have got without expecting it to be more is true but it comes in a context where we hear all DG budgets will be cut by 10% to go to the defence budget. Somebody somewhere has to hold the line and say the needs of acutely vulnerable and at-risk people need to be given primacy somewhere and I believe the EU should be that place.