Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I understand, from the responses to a number of parliamentary questions, that this committee has only met twice over the past 12 months even though it originally was meant to meet bimonthly and then monthly. The Minister of State might establish whether this is the case. As chairman of the aforementioned committee, the Minister of State should put this issue at the top of his agenda because it is the way forward for developing countries.

My final supplementary question in this regard is to ask the reason this committee has not reported to the Oireachtas and the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs? Although the report of the OECD development assistance committee, DAC, recommended that this committee should report to the Oireachtas, this has not been done. Therefore, the Minister of State with responsibility for overseas aid should make this matter a priority because Ireland does not wish to be left behind when compared with other countries. While this is separate from our own aid activity, I refer to the subject of policy coherence for development.

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