Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I thank my party colleague Deputy Brian Brennan for facilitating me. A delegation from home is meeting a Minister. I will be as brief as I can. There is huge admiration throughout the country for the organisations, as evidenced by the three in four people who support overseas development aid.

There is huge admiration for the work the witnesses organisations do and huge buy-in to it. It is wonderful that, despite the bits of tension we have had in society in recent years and the difficulties arising from the Ukraine war, none of that has dissipated. That support for them remains very strong. The statistics in the opening remarks are very stark and it is no harm to stick one or two of them on the record before I ask a few questions. It is an awful indictment of contemporary society internationally and we all should hang our heads in shame at the fact that 300 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, 120 million people are displaced and 400 million are fleeing conflict zones, with women and girls bearing the brunt of violence, displacement and health emergencies. Those figures merit repeating for the record. It is a shocking indictment and underscores the importance of the witnesses' work. Basically, they are pushing an open door with members right across the committee.

Ms McKenna said we should accelerate towards 0.7% aid from Ireland. Will she flesh that out a little as to how she sees that happening and where we are at in terms of that figure at the moment? Regarding debt forgiveness, it seems logical to me that this should be done. It is logical that the ultimate cost of leaving those people frozen, without health services and basic services and in a state of economic paralysis, is far greater than any alleged benefit from taking the money from them. Has Dóchas or other people supported by the organisation done any cost-benefit analysis on debt forgiveness? Are there figures on that? If there are, it would be helpful to circulate them among us. It would be helpful for us to be aware of those figures, particularly if we are talking to the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, who is going to the conference shortly. Common sense would suggest to me that there should be debt forgiveness and debt restructuring on the premise that, even apart from the wrong, the immorality of it and the human suffering, even if you were to look at it more coldly and dispassionately, in economic terms the cost must be greater. It would be interesting to have some empirical research there.

Ms McKenna referred to US aid being closed off. I have a very good friend who is involved in overseas aid as a front line worker who told me their projects are drying up and going to end. It would not be proper to name them here. The person visited me recently. I went to school with one of them. They were in my home and they said their work will be drying up. Is the stable door fully closed or is there a way you can go back, almost like the tariffs, with the begging bowl and get an agreement for some US aid? I presume it is not going to close every form of aid. Is it a grand gesture that we may be able to negotiate out of? Is that in progress? I suspect there must be an opportunity there. The Taoiseach said at COP26 that Ireland would give at least €225 million in climate finance. I think Ms McKenna in her document refers to a figure of €250 million per year. We are very close to it if that is the case. Will she tell us what the differential is? I will leave it at that and I appreciate the understanding of my colleagues.