David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming before us today. We have had a number of meetings now on this issue, and every time we have a meeting with Dóchas and others, the situation seems to have worsened progressively. As the Minister of State has said, what is happening there is almost beyond description. When we consider some of the numbers we have been given, each of these numbers is a person. What if we put ourselves or our families in those situations? At the last meeting we had we were told 323 million people are on the brink of starvation and 245 million people are facing crisis levels of hunger. This raises the question whether we are doing enough and whether we could do even more. We should do more if we can.

Reference was made to 0.7% of Ireland's GDP. Perhaps the Minister of State will tell the committee where we are at and what the targets are. Can we actually increase that or improve on the target to reach that figure as soon as we can?

Will the Minister of State tell the committee something about the UN position? I am aware the UN has all kinds of different procedures for declaring famine. I brought this point up at the last meeting. Has the Minister of State any sense of where that is? I am not sure what difference it would make but we must use every opportunity we can to make progress here. I understand this has not happened yet. Perhaps the Minister of State will enlighten us as to where that is and what difference it would make if this were to happen.