Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has expressed the Government's view that if we are to deliver the desired progress, it is essential that the post-2015 goals have that as a condition for development aid. We are already in discussions on the multiannual financial framework, or MFF, negotiations which is the financial envelope for the EU over the next seven years. Within those discussions it is crucially important that we continue to have the overseas development aid budget enhanced and supported in circumstances where there is real pressure on that expenditure.

As the Deputy has rightly articulated, there is precious little use in having that money unless one can tie it to the reproductive and maternal rights of women, in such countries and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Deputy Mitchell has articulated the Government's view and that is the position we will be advancing during the EU Presidency. It is something the Government holds dear, that with funding and support, rights must come for women in their own countries. In order to make the kind of progress we all want to see, those rights must be enforced by those countries that are giving the money in the first instance. It is something we take very seriously in the context of the negotiations of which we are a part.

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