Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I am very glad to have an opportunity to clarify this because this question has not been asked for a while. I affirm the Government's commitment to meeting the target of 0.7% of GNI to be allocated to overseas development aid, ODA, by 2030.

In budget 2022, €1.044 billion was allocated to ODA. This is the highest-ever amount allocated by any Government. I expect that this figure will correspond to 0.32% of GNI for 2022 given the strong economic recovery we are experiencing. The need to continue to increase Ireland's allocation to ODA in GNI percentage terms must be balanced against the need to responsibly manage the large cash increases required. The increase in ODA allocated from 2021 to 2022, for example, was €176 million extra, or 20.3% of overall ODA. This is a large increase in real terms in one year.

My Department is currently reviewing and building systems that will enable our development programme to grow further, including as a proportion of GNI, in a sustainable and responsible way. This includes working in co-ordination with the many other Departments and bodies spending official development assistance. My Department also continues to work with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and other Departments through the interdepartmental committee on international development, on how a growing ODA allocation can be managed most effectively across government. This, along with other work to further build systems and staff capacity, will inform when and whether it would be possible and appropriate to provide a roadmap to 0.7% for 2030.

We are committed to this but we tried to put a roadmap in place a number of years ago and it looked completely out of date within a year because of the pressures the economy came under. We are trying to build capacity to ensure we can spend a lot of extra money every year before we agree to an actual financial roadmap to 2030.

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