Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)

There are a couple of questions I am going to focus on, and they relate to each other. The first and most important question, from Deputy Murphy, was about why we spend money on ODA. ODA is, crucially, an investment from the Irish Government. In this budget, we have managed to agree on an allocation of €840.3 million, the highest it has ever been since Irish Aid was created by the late Dr. Garret FitzGerald in 1974. For the past ten years we have increased our ODA budget, despite other countries – be they in the EU or be it the US itself – cutting theirs. We fundamentally believe ODA is a good investment because all the issues people are raising in our constituency clinics – grocery prices, energy security, global stability, personal security and concerns about irregular migration – stem from insecurity in the developing world, in the global south. Rather than talking about building walls, increasing subsidies for energy bills, or, as some have suggested, capping grocery prices, we address the issues at source. We help people in the global south to have the basic ability to prosper. This is so women and girls can go to school, avail of further education and play an active part in the workforce, so there will be no need for inter-tribal or inter-community conflict, whether physical or of another kind, and so the impacts of climate change can be addressed and ameliorated in-country.

That, in turn, leads to the question of how we convince the private sector to play its part. Part of this is about considering trading opportunities, to be quite blunt about it. With regard to sub-Saharan Africa, we import over €28 million worth of tea from Kenya, but we also export next-level cranes from Liebherr in Kerry to Tanzania to ensure the port of Dar es Salaam can be a gateway for trade as well as development assistance into the rest of East Africa.

This leads to Deputy Gogarty’s question on getting towards 0.7% of GNI and how we calculate. We make a very distinct clarification in relation to our ODA. We hit 0.38% in 2023, going up to about 0.4%, and that is not including in-country reception of Ukrainians. Many other member states will include that. We deliberately separate it out. Including in-country reception for the first year of Ukrainian refugees brings the figure up to 0.5%. The point is that this does not count towards our lack of a contribution in terms of military assistance to Ukraine. That speaks to the positions of Deputies Gogarty, Murphy and Ó Murchú regarding how we support Ukraine. We contributed an additional €138 million in humanitarian assistance and stabilisation supports to Ukraine. That is in lieu of a military contribution and it is in-country. It includes a new school in the Donetsk region and hospital supplies. As recently as September, the Tánaiste and I announced €35.4 million in new funding for Ukraine, including €23.5 million in humanitarian funding.

To conclude on getting towards the 2030 target for SDGs, Ireland has made progress on about 80% of the objectives. The EU average is just over 72%, although that is tricky to calculate because one relies on each member state reporting. As we have mentioned, in the developing world the rate is 20%. I do not disagree for an instant that we have farther to go, particularly on climate measures, but we are working far above the average global or regional curve to achieve the targets by 2030. We are playing our part in ensuring countries that do not have either the capital resources or the political will to play their part can do so, because it is very clearly in our interest.

Crucially, on Deputy Ó Murchú’s final point, on Gaza, since the attacks of 7 October 2023 Irish funding for peace efforts in the Middle East has increased massively. This year, we announced an additional €20 million for the work of UNWRA. We stand ready, in the very fragile peace that exists on and off, to play our part, not only in providing humanitarian relief to the people of Palestine more broadly but also in the reconstruction efforts. Crucially, that too is in our interest.