Mr. Colm Byrne:

I acknowledge Deputy Brady's support for the Overseas Development Institute, ODI. It is a very important expression of support for us as a group, for the NGO community at large and for our partners on the ground.

More broadly, on the question of funding, I will just put the issue in very practical terms. As the supply goes down, the price of food goes up, and as the price of food goes up, households are simply unable to meet their basic food requirements. It is a very simple economic equation. As the Deputy has rightly described, the problem right now is a perfect storm. We have disruption of food production at the global level, a global climate crisis and the very localised experience of communities which have an immediate lack of access to water and the basic means of survival.

I want to put this into perspective. This is a political choice. We have had plenty of warnings about this food crisis. It is a perfect storm and it has certainly been accentuated by the conflict in Ukraine, but we have had plenty of warnings. This is the fifth failed rainy season in east Africa and west Africa. Last year, the number of people in need and in acute crisis was estimated to be 10 million. This year, the figure has more than doubled to 23 million people. It has doubled because we failed to act early. The statistics we have suggest - and we feel very confident in this - that if we respond early, we rapidly reduce the cost of humanitarian response.

I do not want to get too caught up in the numbers. It is not just about reducing the cost of the humanitarian response. Our estimates suggest that every €1 invested in preventing a crisis saves €3 in launching a humanitarian response. We all agree that prevention is better than cure. Humanitarian aid is a Band-Aid. It is hugely expensive and it does not address the root causes of the problem. When we delay in responding to the problem, it gets bigger and when the problem gets bigger there is more conflict over resources. When there is more conflict over resources there is more population displacement. With more population displacement, there are more people in need, and on and on we go in this downward spiral of really negative experience. It is not just at a country or regional level; it goes right down to the individual household level.

The one thing I would really like to highlight is that every €1 we spend in prevention prevents €3 needed for the cure. This is at a time when we have never been more concerned about financial prudence. The opportunity is there. There is a political will that if we release funding early, we can prevent this crisis. When we come here, we are often asked whether we have any good news. Currently, the answer is "Not now", but the opportunity is to create good news and make good news. We talk about a three C's of Covid, climate and conflict. I would add a fourth C, complacency. We will not be forgiven if we delay any further. We will not be forgiven by our communities and the partners we work with if we make more excuses to divert overseas aid for other purposes, particularly for domestic needs in the European environment. I must underline that we have an opportunity to correct what is already a great injustice and a great wrong.