Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)

When it comes to Sudan in particular, let us not beat around the bush. This is the worst humanitarian situation in the world at the moment. The level of forced displacement is beyond comprehension. The level of deprivation and the level of violence is absolutely vicious. We saw that just ten days ago when the siege of El Fasher was completed, with very deadly consequences. Ireland is doing a number of things in this regard. We have contributed over €14 million this year by way of a humanitarian response through UN agencies and our agency partners on the ground. During the UN General Assembly week in September, the Tánaiste and I announced an additional €3 million in funding. We expect that we will need to maintain that for next year. We have also signed up to international agreements to prevent the sale of arms and weapons and to impose an embargo on both sides in the conflict. We have consistently raised that issue multilaterally.

More generally, selling the SDGs was probably a little easier in 2015. We discussed at other fora the Make Poverty History marches of over 20 years ago, when there was a real global appetite. Let us not be mistaken in that there is now global weariness in this regard, particularly among certain governments that have decided to take a very populist route, claiming that somehow the SDGs do not matter, that the climate emergency is not real, or that it is not in their interest to be part of a joined-up global world. It is our responsibility as elected representatives to say we are all interconnected and that the world is getting smaller, the consequence being that what happens in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine lands on the doorsteps of the people the members present and I represent here.