Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I join him in lauding voluntary organisations for the great work they are doing. Is the Minister of State aware that in Australia the new Foreign Minister is putting a Bill through parliament, the Australian Civil Corps Bill, along the lines I am suggesting, whereby one would establish a register not only to work with developing countries but also to provide specialists to deal with natural disasters and so on. The establishment through legislation of a civilian corps would be of great value. There is a great deal of good work being done in this area but much of it is not known. Such an initiative would be evidence that we are thinking outside the box.

Rather than having unemployed engineers and tradespeople sitting at home, they could volunteer through an organised corps to do work abroad as part of our overseas aid programme. What recognition is given in our target of 0.7% of GDP to the value of the work done by skilled people working abroad? Is that taken into account as part of the target?

See this speech in context