Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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To tell the truth, Chairman, I am a latecomer to this millennium goals debate because I was not around when the goals were being formulated. In that sense, I am in catch-up mode. In that context, I thank Dóchas for assisting me by providing some clarity on the issue. I also educate myself by attending Irish Aid functions, the most recent one involving Ms Mary Robinson in Dublin Castle, which was very interesting. I thank the witnesses for praising the Government's policy document, One World, One Future, and for their constructive contribution today. However, I am still struggling to understand what we can do. The oversight issue is extremely complex. The witnesses suggested that this committee should be overseeing the work of the interdepartmental committee. The question of the scrutiny of EU positions was also raised. While I do not wish to speak for my colleagues on this committee who may feel they have more time for scrutinising, I can say from my experience over the past two years that there is not even sufficient time to scrutinise the EU documentation we are obliged to scrutinise.

We are all very conscious of the millennium development goals and the new goals that will come into effect after 2015. Ireland is a small country which is praised highly for its development goals and its Irish Aid programmes. However, one must put our contribution in a global context. In terms of aid to refugees in Syria, for example, Europe has contributed €400 million, while we have contributed €9 million. If one takes the aid budget of all countries into consideration, Ireland is only a minnow. Therefore, I must ask how we can have the influence the witnesses are calling for in terms of the 12 new goals that will be set. As I understand it, those goals are predicated on the enormous budgets of the EU and the UN. This is a small committee that also deals with trade, among other things. The committee does not just deal with Irish Aid and our overseas aid programmes. I am doing my best to understand how we can reach policy coherence here. I am relying, in that context, on our Chairman, who has vast experience in this area and who will guide the committee.

I have two specific questions for the witnesses. First, is GOAL now an affiliate member of Dóchas? My second question relates to an issue that is frequently raised and which was referred to by my colleague, Senator Jim Walsh, that is, fertility in the context of women's rights and human rights. I understand that Christian Aid is an affiliate of Dóchas. We have occasionally had witnesses in before this committee explaining such matters to us. We had, for example, a lesbian leader from Uganda who explained that attempts are being made in that country to change the law to allow for the execution of lesbians and gays. The witnesses were very critical of the role of the Christian churches in Uganda, and indeed I have heard that replicated in the context of other countries. It appears that Christian organisations, be they evangelical or Catholic, are very unsympathetic and do not assist such people in upholding their human rights. I ask the witnesses to comment briefly on that.