Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Brennan sincerely, not just for his contribution but for his ongoing 20-year commitment. He walked the walk and that was well known to me long before he made the decision to join electoral politics, and we are all the better for it. I will touch specifically on our diaspora later in my wrap-up and give some detail about where the funding goes. I might talk first about how we respond to humanitarian crises because the Deputy is right. We hear headlines on the news about how we have contributed whatever sum and the vast majority, for no negative reason, will forget about that huge catastrophe within a couple of days, bar those who are immediately exposed to it. Our work only starts at that stage after the announcement.

In 2023, Ireland provided life-saving support and stocks in response to devastating earthquakes in Türkiye, Syria and Morocco, as well as the floods in Libya. In 2024, we responded to Hurricane Beryl in the Caribbean. It is crucial that Ireland’s rapid-response initiative provide critical humanitarian supplies as well as human expertise. In 2024, 95 tonnes of stocks was deployed to six countries and 39 deployments of personnel were made to 20 countries. In 2025 so far, Ireland has deployed 107 tonnes of stocks to Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gaza, where stocks remain in Jordan, and 23 people. When we talk about stocks, we mean shelter, tents, tarpaulin, sleeping bags and base-level food that can be used for nutrition, such as grain and pasta. It is also small cooking appliances and things like that. Regarding personnel, these people are generally experts in their field who are used to dealing with questions such as how to triage the medical response, restructuring and recovery.

On Gaza, I am sure there will be other questions, so I will go into more detail and jointly respond at that point.