John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I will return to the point around the target of 0.7% of GNI, which is important. It is a UN agreed target that the Government has committed to achieving by 2030. I heard what the Minister of State said in response to Deputy Stanton. He said this is the largest amount that has ever gone into the overseas development budget, and I welcome that. It is a marked improvement on last year, when the relevant figure was 0.42% of GNI. This year, that has risen to 0.43%. In 2008, before the recession, we were at 0.59% GNI, which was markedly higher, not in financial terms but in real terms. We have gone backwards in many ways, perhaps not financially but in respect of the percentages involved. We have moved away from the objective. Many of the NGOs would ask what is the strategy to achieve that 0.7% by 2030. Are we still committed to achieving that target by 2030? If so, where is the roadmap? That is what we need to see. Everybody has rightfully praised our NGOs, which do phenomenal work, and that is what they want to hear. More importantly, they want to see a roadmap for how we are going to get to that critical figure by 2030.