Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

Barack Obama, who is the President of the United States, and other senior Democrats have sought a reduction in funding. There is a shameful history in Latin America of the CIA and such organisations, who trained despot regimes. Thank God people in those countries are rising up and electing governments. There are concerns in Colombia about the ongoing human rights situation and the fact that it has the record in the world for murders of trade unionists and human rights defenders. It has an appalling and shameful history. Directly or indirectly, Ireland should not be allocating money that will be of benefit to the military objectives of the Colombian Government. I welcome the range of NGOs referred to by the Minister of State in his response. That is commendable and follows the record of Irish Aid but I am concerned that, either directly or indirectly through the EU, we are funding that type of aid.

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