Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I was fascinated when listening to Deputies Mick Wallace and Clare Daly talk about their experiences in Aleppo. I was interested because last year I was on the border between Syria and Turkey where I met many people coming from Aleppo, many of whom had been blown apart by the conflict. I would be hard put to know where to point the finger of blame, whether at Russia, America, Saudi Arabia or everyone else involved in the conflict which has drawn people from so many areas. A strength of our country is our neutrality in the sense that we can try as well as we can not to take sides, particularly in highly militarised conflicts in which in knowing what is right and wrong one can become increasingly confused in the fog of war. That neutrality gives us real strength and integrity and we should protect, defend and develop it. We should not be passive. There may be times when what is right and wrong in a conflict is clearly exposed and one can call what one sees, but sometimes that takes bravery.

Today is 4 July and in a sense se should be willing to call out our biggest benefactor. The United States is the biggest investor in this country, but we should not miss the opportunity to describe what President Donald Trump's Administration is doing along its border as being fundamentally in breach of United Nations' values and rules. It is an example of where we could be brave and stand up and call out what is wrong by not going to the Phoenix Park tonight to attend the ceremonies. It is not out of disrespect to the American people but to make a protest. Sometimes it is not just a matter of calling out what is wrong but also of stepping up and being proactive, generous and active to do what is right. Given that the Council meeting was rightly concentrated on the issue of migration which is dividing and tearing Europe apart, I would like to see us going into that forum and to see the Taoiseach in New York giving an example of how we could step up to the plate in using our neutrality in a positive way. Such an example would be following through on some of the words spoken last year about increasing our overseas aid. I recall that in the last budget it was increased from a very low level, but we are still at a figure of 0.33% of GDP.

I understand the Taoiseach said last December there would be a ramping up of overseas aid, starting with this upcoming budget. In April we had a public consultation on what the public wants from the overseas aid programme. I would like to see specifics at this stage in terms of what we are thinking in that regard. That would give us a certain strength as we apply for a seat on the United Nations Security Council or at the European Council meeting in the sense that in a discussion on migration we could rightly say we are playing our part in addressing the root cause of the problem, which is the chronic poverty, climate stress or war in Africa and the Middle East being the key driver of migration. We have reached only 0.33% of GDP while our target is 0.7%. In other words, we have reached less than half of our target. As a country, we are undoubtedly one of the greatest beneficiaries of globalisation. All the investment in our country is often in the European headquarters of EMEA, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As a country where corporate tax returns are going through the roof because of the benefit we have of being in that position, instead of putting money into the rainy day fund, which I support, we should put it into overseas aid straight away. I know one has to be careful and that one cannot ramp it up immediately. One has to make sure one uses the money wisely. That would give us an authority and help us encourage other countries to do what needs to be done in terms of addressing the root causes of the migration crisis and other wars. We should be proactive in saying the aid is not tied and that it is not connected to economic advantage. There are certain things we are good at and we should double down on those. I would like to have seen that as one of the statements. I know the budget has to be done in October but we all know that now is the time when the budget deals are being done. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, to give me an indication of what deal we are looking for in overseas aid. What is the scale of ambition we are ramping up to? That would speak volumes, in other words, that we are not all plámás but that we made difficult decisions in this regard.

I read with interest what the Taoiseach said in his speech on the discussions around PESCO and the militarisation of Europe that is taking place. Earlier, there was a meeting of elected representatives in the Dáil who have an interest in neutrality. One of the things on which we agreed is that there is no clarity on what we are spending, what our commitments are and what is happening in terms of the development of PESCO. I tried to ask straight questions of the Minister of State with responsibility for defence to try to get transparency on what is involved but it has proven to be incredibly difficult. We have an advantage in our effort to get a seat on the UN Security Council by differentiating ourselves from both Norway and Canada who were involved in possibly one of the worst examples of western intervention, the bombing of Libya. Ed Horgan said in his letter to the newspaper today that Canada dropped up to 300 bombs and Norway dropped twice that number.

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