Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his answer. There is a great deal of merit in what we are already doing with ODA. Next year's figure of 0.32% of our GNI is very welcome. We know how well that money is going to spent and how far it will go. However, I return to the end of his reply where he referred to the appropriateness of providing a roadmap. It is 51 years since wealthy countries committed 0.7% of GNI to ODA and in the years since that commitment we have, I think, fallen €24 trillion behind that in global terms. Thus, in the absence of a roadmap, some of these commitments are just statements. I do not doubt for a second the commitment but we need a roadmap. That roadmap could say that if the global economy is on this level, here is how we will get there and if things subside a little more, then here is how we will get there in that eventuality. However, we need to lay out a pathway to these commitments. We leave ourselves a little at risk of talking about tokenistic commitments in the absence of a clear route to get there. That is what Dóchas and many other NGOs have been asking for.

See this speech in context