Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very conscious of the Minister's background. He cares very much about the developing world and has visited many of the places in receipt of overseas development aid from Ireland. Given his background expertise as a former Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, he will know that Gorta-Self Help Africa has called for a new initiative, namely, the creation of an African agri-investment fund of €50 million over the next five years as a pilot to provide loans and access to credit for small and medium African enterprises.

Ireland has achieved something in which it is very interested, in that we grew from a largely smallholder farmer base to a leading agri-economy. Of the 1.4 billion people in the world who could be described as extremely poor, 70% live in rural areas in basic subsistence farming situations and need to be connected to markets. Is that something on which the Minister can make a commitment?

I note the Minister also cares about getting back to 0.7% of GDP for overseas development. We have fallen from 0.58% to 0.32%. We are a First World economy. If the Minister was a betting man, when will we make it to 0.7%?