Ms R?iseal N? Ch?illeachair:

I brought our annual report, which has just been published, here. We are audited on a regular basis by all of our donors. I agree with previous comments on the weapons expenditure, it is very hard to stomach. It is very hard to understand when it is said that $2.4 trillion is spent on weapons on an annual basis. It also is very difficult to square the fact that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council are also the biggest producers of weapons. We are caught in the middle of all that. Ireland has done great work on the sustainable development goals, to really focus all political efforts on doing better and doing good. Looking at the countries that have recovered significantly from conflict alone, such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sri Lanka and Cambodia, all these countries received aid and were provided alternatives to conflict by development actors, NGOs, UN agencies and so on. This is just one part of the work that we do. The impact of Ireland's global contribution is immense. I was at the Protection of Civilians Week 2024 event in New York two weeks ago. I saw the work Ireland is doing to try to address the impact of explosive weapons, for example, in trying to quantify the impact that explosive weapons will have for decades on children who will need prosthetic limbs for the rest of their lives and so on.

We should absolutely question how we spend our money and make sure that there is value for money in everything we do and in Ireland's aid budget. However, as I outlined at the beginning, we are in a very difficult space in the world, and Ireland is one of the leading countries in trying to put peace before conflict and ensuring that education, access to water and the most basic human rights are at the centre of foreign policy. I think that is really essential.