Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms McKenna. Coming at it from my own perspective, I very much agree with what has been outlined today. There is an absolute key importance in taking the core principles of our policy and working to ensure that we enshrine them in the EU philosophy policy. I agree totally that there is a drift away from it. We are entering a very dangerous period. There was an allusion to it earlier on and it is not in any way political. The implications of the second Trump Presidency with regard to the potential damage it would cause on a global level, particularly to those countries that are most disadvantaged, are difficult to contemplate. In the USA, the Biden Administration did a tremendous turnaround job within a fairly quick time to allay some of the worst impacts of the first Presidency but we are in an even more precarious state as we have talked about, because of Gaza and Ukraine. A very worrying drift is taking place within Europe.

In the last period in which I was there, something that was quite openly discussed was the interlinking of a country's position in support of the EU on certain key international policy issues. That did not used to be the case and that involved countries which used to have incredible, proactive and positive positions very similar to Ireland, which moved in the space of about 12 months to a position that was greatly at odds with their historical perspectives. From our country's perspective, we need to use every lever we can within our European contact level to extend the capital on making sure that we fight for what we collectively believe in. That is one of the really positive things about the development aid position within Ireland, in that in both Government and civil society there is huge understanding and agreement about what we jointly want to see. That is what we need to focus on.

I appreciate the witnesses coming in and highlighting the work they do all the time in order that we as a committee can take that message to the Ministers in the Department, the Government, etc. to say that this is vital. I am sure the witnesses already have done so. I always say that when it comes to international institutions, their attitudes to the development side are a bit like the personal attitude to a pension. Everybody believes it is vital but nobody wants to fund it, not realising that the implications of not funding it now are making it more expensive by trillions in the years to come. It is in Europe's interest. We only have to see at first hand, as have the witnesses and I on the ground, where we are within the African context if we get this wrong. Within a short number of decades, the problems that Europe sees as its fundamental problems at the moment such as migration will be exponentially greater than they are now because of our short-sightedness. I hope that we as a committee can play whatever role we can. If there are any other issues the witnesses want to come back to now, we will focus on them before we finish up. I really do appreciate both what the witnesses have done as organisations and groups and NGOs in civil society on a daily basis and the time they have given us today.