Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate his commitment to human rights and humanitarian aid, and I know it has always been on the Irish Government's agenda. However, it is so important that we really use the power that we have with the US and in the EU to reinforce just how abhorrent what we are about to see is. It also goes to the survival of many Irish organisations that live in the psyche of the Irish people, like Concern, Goal and Trócaire. The vital work they are doing is being undermined. They are closing programmes and offices.

I also want to highlight that the US aid cuts, which it has been doing over the last few years, are really a slap in the face to the UN commitments we have been making and represent an undermining of the commitments that the global north has been making to the global south.It is really problematic. I implore, from this point onwards, that Ireland continues and really pushes the EU and our allies to reinforce the importance of this aid. It is not like a little additional extra. We are undermining global stability and that will impact us at home. This is not happening in a vacuum away from us. It is about global stability and global peace, which will impact us in Ireland and that is why it is so fundamental.