Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State and his team, including my former colleague, Robert Lahiff, who was next door to me on a corridor some years ago. It is good to see him here in this capacity. I appreciate the fact that the Minister of State is very hands-on, is clearly very empathetic and that he has travelled to these locations and got involved in a very real way. It is very moving. You could not but be affected by it, as the Minister of State clearly is. I will make a few comments rather than ask questions, although one is somewhat of a question.

It merits saying at the outset that the scale of this is extraordinary. The Minister of State has said 36 million are affected, 21 million are suffering food insecurity and malnutrition, and 1.5 million children are experiencing malnutrition in Somalia alone. They are scary figures. When we get figures like these, we do not fully grasp them. That is why the various advertisements on television and so on focus on individuals who are suffering. It is only going from an individual out that we can understand these things. It is a human catastrophe on an enormous scale and a great tragedy. It is important this committee recognises the good work of the NGOs like Concern, Trócaire, GOAL, World Vision, Oxfam, Plan International and Christian Aid. We should acknowledge and pay tribute to their work. As the Minister of State has said, the Irish people are great supporters of these bodies.

It was good to note from the Minister of State's presentation that he believes we have made an impact at the UN Security Council and the EU. Insofar as I have a question, I would ask him to elaborate a little on that. How much of a difference have we made in that regard? Is there potential to get more done at EU level?

It is good that Ireland is responding practically through the extra €30 million and the €3.2 million in additional aid in October, including €1.5 million to Irish NGOs and €500,000 to UNICEF. That is all good. The more of that we can do, the better. The Minister of State has given a figure for the overall increase in the Irish contribution in budget 2023. That is the way it should be. It is an increase of 17% on 2022 figures. I am personally pleased with that.

The one thing I would say to the Minister of State, which is something any one of us who practises politics, is involved in political activity and meets people daily could say, is that, thankfully, there is great buy-in among Irish people for providing support abroad. It is in our DNA. Our involvement in Africa down through the years probably relates to the famine and many other reasons. It is embedded in our value systems. The Minister of State will find he is pushing an open door when asking the public to support the Horn of Africa. Our public buys into it, which is wonderful. The Minister of State did acknowledge there are issues domestically, but no matter what domestic issues there are, one thing that always heartens me about our society is we always seek to see the bigger picture, as we should. It is our role to lead out on that. I am totally in support of that increase, which needs to be built on next year. I thank the Minister of State and his officials for being here. I have not so much asked questions here as said we stand in solidarity with the Minister of State's efforts.