Ms Jane-Ann McKenna:

Ms Cranfield may come in on this as well. As the Cathaoirleach mentioned, we can be very proud of our ODA. We obviously work very closely with the Department of foreign affairs. I was in Seville for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development only a couple of weeks ago. It was remarkable to see the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, stand up and state what Ireland believed in respect of ODA. He referred to a non-transactional and non-self-interested approach, one that was based on the principles of targeting those who were furthest behind and looking at poverty alleviation at its core. That is something. Ireland has come through with a few other like-minded states. They have created a non-paper in recent weeks that was circulated among the Council with a number of other member states that were proponing the reasons ODA was so important, why it should be preserved and why the principles of that needed to be upheld in the next MFF. However, Ms Cranfield may be able to speak to that. There are other like-minded states within the EU but it does not seem to be the broader direction of travel.