Ms Jane-Ann McKenna:

I will come to the SDGs in the first instance. I was at the SDG summit in New York last September and it was great to see Ireland leading on the political declaration. Due to events in Gaza and elsewhere, it has very much slipped off the agenda.

The UN has linked the SDGs and the challenge of funding the 2030 agenda with that of debt, and this is where we have incorporated our asks relating to a fairer financial system because we really recognise that, in fact, we are very far from being able to achieve the SDGs. We have been going backwards and are continuing to do so after Covid. We have not been able to make progress and we need to start looking at some of those underlying explicit issues that are very much blocking progress at a national level for many countries in the global south. It is about looking at that financial reform as well as at resourcing. We ourselves are not quite on track to reach the 0.7% target by 2030. There is an element of being able to provide the finance to support the SDGs and realise them in practice, and that is something we will continue to push for to ensure that, from Ireland’s perspective, we can put our foot forward to support the SDGs and ensure it will be not only in our policy and political declarations but also in our financing that we are really trying to make sure they can become a reality.

I might hand over to Ms Balfe on the Covid question.