David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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12. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on his latest engagement with Dóchas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19765/23]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I ask the Tánaiste about his most recent engagement with Dóchas, which is made up of 58 organisations working in 104 countries and aims to reach the furthest behind.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Dóchas is the Irish association of non-governmental development organisations. Its mission is to enable international development and humanitarian organisations in Ireland to achieve greater impact in their work by working together. The Tánaiste and I met Dóchas and the CEOs of key Irish international NGOs on 22 February 2023. I was keen to meet with these stakeholders as a group as early as possible in my new role and had earlier held bilateral meetings with each of the CEOs who were at that meeting. The OECD has commended Ireland on the quality of our partnerships with NGOs, calling it the hallmark of our development co-operation. The Irish international NGO sector has a strong international reputation. Irish NGOs carry out important work supporting development and delivering humanitarian assistance and protection. They are well-placed to ensure aid reaches those to whom it is intended and are very well informed of the realities on the ground. I was personally very pleased to visit Zambia over the Easter break and see this happening on the ground and the impact they were having on family lives. At the meeting with Dóchas, the Tánaiste and I discussed a wide range of issues, including the global humanitarian system, the importance of gender equality and how we can effectively reach those who are furthest behind. The increasing number of humanitarian crises was noted as presenting a risk to hard-won development gains and shrinking civil society space was highlighted as a significant challenge by the NGOs. The sector acknowledged Ireland’s agility as a development partner, especially during the Covid-19 crisis. We expressed our appreciation for the impressive work carried out by the Irish international NGOs in the context of increased conflict, climate change, extreme violence against women and girls, and growing inequality. We also acknowledged the valuable information which the sector shared with us during our term on the UN Security Council. The Tánaiste and I will continue to meet with the sector on a regular basis.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. Will he comment on the concerns Dóchas and its membership have with respect to what they see as the reversal of the progress that had been made on the sustainable development goals since 2019? Can the Minister of State also give some indication as to Ireland's funding in this area with respect to reaching the furthest behind and funding for the Dóchas organisations? Are there plans to increase the same in line with the aim we had to reach the 0.7% target? Will the Minister of State comment on the ongoing support that Dóchas, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and Ireland have given to the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria? Quite often, disaster like that hit the headlines when they happen. They stay in the headlines for a couple of days or weeks and then disappear but the actual suffering, crises and humanitarian pressures continue.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for the seven questions there. I will be as brief as I can. The sector acknowledged the difficulty in areas where there have been humanitarian crises. In some areas, it has set back the development work undertaken over previous years and we have to work to rebuild that, especially in relation to the earthquake in Turkey and Cyprus. Ireland was the first out to offer €10 million of aid immediately on the weekend that happened. We all recall the death of 30 GOAL workers in Syria who were from Syria and were good friends with our GOAL workers here in Ireland. I also acknowledge the funding of €515,000 that we have made available to Dóchas this year to support this core work. Dóchas is also carrying out a deep Irish public attitudes survey towards overseas aid and I look forward to seeing the results of this research in due course.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response and join with him in congratulation Dóchas and the organisations for the fantastic work they do. As the Minister has pointed out, quite often they put their own lives at risk as we have seen with the GOAL workers. I ask the Minister to comment on the situation regarding front-line defenders, who are also a matter of concern to the Dóchas organisations. The fact is that so many of them are suffering around the world and have been killed, imprisoned or tortured and so on, for the work they do.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I met representatives of their organisation, Front Line Defenders, and especially people who are providing information on the ground and who want to keep a low-key presence in some of these countries so as not to be identified. We are making efforts to ensure their safety continues. Another point is that at our meeting with Dóchas, we specifically raised the issue, following my bilateral meeting, that there be board representation on the Irish NGOs from the southern hemisphere, where we are delivering so much aid directly on the ground and humanitarian benefit. That change has now been implemented by the Department already this year. When they apply for funding, each NGO that has not already got a member on the full board from the southern hemisphere, is required to put arrangements in place to make it more knowledgeable about the situation on the ground. I am very pleased that has actually happened and is in place this year. We are working, through Ireland's civil society partnership, on A Better World, which is a framework document we are working on with the NGOs and we are achieving considerable increases in overseas development aid, ODA, spending year on year.