Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I have three key points. First, on the diaspora, I warmly welcome the support programme. I often think about how the diaspora comprises both people who want to be away and people who have to be away. There is a major gap in that. Our support is for people who have to be away, and we do not have to look too far away to see what is going on. I warmly welcome the support programme and, if anything, would encourage expanding it.

With respect to foreign aid, I have a short story about my personal experience. After the tsunami in Sri Lanka, I raised €20,000 to buy a bus for an orphanage. I went to the country three months after the tsunami and was horrified by what I saw on the ground and how the situation was being dealt with. It was very poor. There was so much red tape when you tried to get anything done. Kids were sleeping rough and parents' bodies were still being brought in from the beach four months later. I bought a field and went back to the people of counties Wicklow and Wexford and got more funding. Twenty years on, I have six orphanages over there without any state funding.

Foreign aid is very important, as is spend that money and react to an international catastrophe, whether in Haiti, Sri Lanka or Nepal. It is wonderful to hear a Minister say on the radio a few days later that we will give €3 million to a country. but what does that mean to the kids in Sri Lanka? With respect, it means absolutely nothing. Going forward, on the day of a disaster, we need to get all stakeholders involved, including the consulate of the country and a delegation of people from these Houses to travel there, find out what is needed and engage with the people who can provide it. The question that is asked by everybody in the agencies out there relates to how much is going to the people that matter. We can never take our finger off that point.

My next point relates to Gaza. Gaza will define not only the Minister of State's legacy but that of all of us in these Houses over the next few years and months. It is great to see movement on Article 2; that is warmly welcomed. We have very much been criticising America, and rightly so. However, people far closer to us are supplying arms and some of them are involved in Article 2. It is key that we pick our battles. America may not be listening to a small country like Ireland about Gaza, but the Netherlands was supplying arms. We must pick our battles. When the Minister of State is sitting around the table, he gets to know foreign ministers. This is a key issue and it will define us. I read a shocking article 24 hours ago that said that for every 100 kids who were alive in 2023, two are now dead, two have been maimed for life, two are missing in action presumed dead, three have been orphaned and five have malnutrition. Approximately 17,500 kids have died. Some 1,700 of those were under one year of age. They were killed before they could walk. I rest my case and thank the Minister of State for his time.