Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for organising this session. It has been stunning. I thank the witnesses for their advocacy and for appearing before us. I am shocked by some of the figures they have put before us and some of the things they have said. I extend my sincere condolences on the staff member in Sudan who was killed and the people in the organisations who have been let go because of these cuts.

One of the stunning figures is that there are 400 million children in conflict zones and that 14 million lives will be lost by 2030, according to The Lancet medical journal. In that context, it is really important to say that the title of this meeting is "Sustainable Development Goals". Defence is not a sustainable development goal. We need to think about how we support the sustainable development goals, notwithstanding the security pressures some member states believe they are under.

An important point is that aid is not necessarily about survival. If it were, then survival alone would not be sufficient. This is not something we often talk about even in social protection domestically. We talk about making sure people do not fall into poverty, but how do we get them out of poverty? This requires not necessarily just minimal funding, but consideration of how we go further, notwithstanding the major challenges we have.

I have two gripes about ODA more generally, at least in the Irish context, that I would like to get the witnesses' feedback on. I will then put two questions to the witnesses. One gripe has to do with grants versus loans. The contributions were more in favour of the grants approach. I think one can give some preferential loans in supporting business communities in certain developing countries. I would like to get the witnesses' perspective on the progress made in transferring more ODA towards grants rather than loans.

Refugee costs in Ireland are often lumped in with how we think about ODA. When one strips that out, I think our budget is about 0.38% of GNI, and that is not even taking into account the different ratio if we apply GNI*. Sometimes, a bit of accounting magic goes into this stuff. That is reprehensible, so I would like to hear the witnesses' views.

There is an issue when the aid budgets are cut by the developed world, such as the US or the EU. Other actors then fill a political gap. One can see this with the rise of BRICS conversations and the use of different monetary instruments and different currencies in development aid. What do the witnesses think about reform of international institutions that may be involved in ODA, such as the World Bank, the IMF and EU institutions like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development? How do we strengthen them in line with humanitarian goals?

I would love to hear the witnesses' thoughts on the humanitarian consensus internationally seeming to fall away. It is very difficult to see the hard-won lessons of the past being disregarded but the humanitarian organisations were set up for a reason, that being, what we witnessed in the 20th century. I would love to hear comments from the witnesses as regards what more we could do to talk to the public about not having to relearn those hard-won lessons.