Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Ahearn for allowing me to go before him due to another appointment. It is really appreciated.

The Minister of State is very welcome. This discussion is timely. It is also important that we had the opportunity to discuss it yesterday at the European affairs committee but our voices need to be heard in every Chamber and committee. I acknowledge the Minister of State's commitment and the Government's commitment to firmly pledge, with our international partners, that we need to tackle issues that affect so many lives right across the globe.

I thank Irish Aid and all those who work there for the work they do, touching the lives of people living in the most challenging places on Earth. I acknowledge Ireland's humanitarian support that offers a lifeline in places like Sudan and Gaza, while our long-term development support continues to transform lives in places affected by poverty and climate change.

The Minister of State mentioned Sudan. We had the opportunity to raise it in the Seanad this morning. We raised it on Tuesday morning, and as the Minister of State knows, we discussed it yesterday as well. What has been happening over the past two years is just shocking, as is the fact that 24 million people are deeply impacted and 12 million children are suffering from malnutrition. Everything we can do needs to be done to both support those who are in Sudan but also the surrounding countries, who are going through difficult situations themselves. They have to support the many millions of refugees coming from Sudan.

From humanitarian disaster zones to places where people struggle to access food, education or healthcare, Ireland's support makes a transformative difference to people's lives. One of the areas I want to briefly mention is the area of female genital mutilation, FGM. While I appreciate that we have legislation here that forbids FGM and makes it a criminal offence, at the same time, there was a report during the week that said there was a 330% increase in demand for FGM-related medical treatments. That is quite shocking. The earlier statistic I found was that in 2017, 5,790 women underwent FGM in Ireland, which is a very high number.This is as a result of cultural practices from outside Ireland. A former Minster of State, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, headed up a subgroup on FGM within the women's caucus that produced a very strong report containing a really good set of recommendations. We met the Taoiseach of the day - he is now Taoiseach again - to discuss the report. I would very much appreciate it if we could take the opportunity to forward the report to the Minister of State who is present because FGM is something we need to try stamp out globally. Obviously, it has an impact on girls and women living here.

I had the opportunity to mention to the following matter to the Minister of State previously. The work that our partners in international aid do is extremely important to the day-to-day lives of people who need extra support. There are two such partners with which I was involved in Tanzania and Uganda that helped set up and support Special Olympics for people with intellectual disabilities, particularly children. I will provide an example of one programme that was funded. I refer to a situation where the equivalent €60,000 was spent on health education in a particular area in Tanzania. That money went towards visiting families where it was known that they had a child with an intellectual disability. In many cases, these children literally never saw the light of day. They were tethered by ropes to the homes because of the shame and stigma that obtained. Through that funding, the community and Special Olympics were able to organise a gardening programme for those with intellectual disabilities. A lot of crops were grown, which were then sold. The children and young people who were involved brought those skills back to their homes. Their families then learned how to grow vegetables and to cook. There was a nutrition programme and a healthy cooking programme, and they were able to sell their crops. It was an absolute lifeline for those who were involved. The entities that Irish Aid is able to partner with are really important, especially those who are on the ground providing grassroots support.

I thank all of those who have been involved in the partnerships. I have no doubt we will get to see many of those programmes going forward.