Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, for coming to the Chamber. I am delighted to see him because it is fantastic to have this dialogue with the responsible Minister.

I have asked to talk about overseas development assistance, an issue I know is close to the Minister of State’s heart. The international development sector, which has been absolutely decimated by the freeze placed on USAID projects by the Trump administration, stands at a really critical moment in Ireland and globally. At the end of February, approximately $60 billion of funding has been cut overnight. At the same time, many states in Europe, including France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Finland, to name just a few, have already, or are in the process of, reducing their ODA. Likewise, last week we saw that in the UK where Keir Starmer’s Government made a serious cut to ODA.

We are seeing a huge disruption to the work of humanitarian development and peace-building agencies, which is going to cost lives. It is going to increase the vulnerability of the most at-risk people in the world. This drastic funding withdrawal is going to threaten peace and stability and is potentially going to create a political vacuum, which leaves space for extremism and increased influence of non-human rights focused or compliant countries, and seriously undermine the already much-delayed progress we have been attempting to make towards the achievement of our sustainable development goals. Linked to that is our climate goals. Therefore, the implications of this are going to have a greater impact on climate change.

The leave no one behind and the furthest behind first approach is one of the major outcome areas for Irish Aid. I am asking the Minister of State what he is going to do within this context to ensure that no one is going to be left behind when we are about to see colossal and possibly irreparable harm as a consequence of these cuts.

I spent a long time living in east Africa, and I know first hand how critical this funding is. I know what is going to happen without it. I have seen the impacts of famine on families and communities in South Sudan and Somalia. I am anticipating that the images we are going to see on our televisions and our mobile phones are going to be horrific.

Over a 90-day period estimates suggest that 11.7 million women and girls will be denied essential reproductive healthcare. We will see an increase in things like maternal mortality, in the number of girls being forced into early marriage and in the number of women dying from childbirth. We are going to see an increase in things like child labour, because desperate families are going to be forcing their kids to work because they are struggling just to put food on the table and are living in starvation conditions.

The famine early warning system has been shut down as a consequence of these cuts, which has undermined efforts to pre-empt and act early on food crises. It is estimated that €1 spent on early action saves €7 on humanitarian response, and that is why this is so incredibly important.

We are going to see a huge increase in deaths from HIV and AIDS. Two thirds of people globally are treated for AIDS with US funding. The fact that this money is now stopped means we are going to see a huge increase in deaths.

Ireland has a proud history of humanitarian work. I have worked on Irish Aid projects and I have seen the fantastic work we do abroad. I am deeply disappointed that the Irish Government's commitment to ODA was not in the programme for Government. It has been watered down. This included removing the deadline of 2030 to reach our ODA obligation of 0.7%. Rather than progressing, we are stagnating in relation to our ODA commitments.

I am asking the Minister of State what his plan is. What are we going to do in the EU to scale up funding as a bloc? Has he talked with his EU counterparts on this issue? What are we doing in terms of our diplomatic links in the humanitarian sector? Is it going to be on his agenda when he is visiting Tanzania and Kenya? Will he make sure it is on the Taoiseach’s agenda next week when he is visiting the US for St Patrick's Day, and critically when he is visiting Washington to really push back on the Trump administration and what it has done within this context?

Many countries have crippled spending, and they have these enormous debt servicing obligations as well. How can we look into tax justice as a way to develop better responses for countries in their resiliency and humanitarian programming?

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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It is going to be really tough to get through this in four minutes; I wish we had 40 minutes. Perhaps we might have a further deeper debate in this Chamber. I know Senator Stephenson and I are going to work quite closely. Just to reassure her, I would not have missed this debate for anything. That is how important it is. The Acting Chair has been in this seat before and knows we may need to move things around, specifically to address a matter. I have a lot to say but not enough time. I am going to lay out some of the actualities as best I can and, more importantly, address the valid questions the Senator asked and points she made.

For the benefit of the House, on 20 January, the US President issued an executive order which directed a 90-day pause in US foreign assistance. The Government has been closely following the situation, which is still evolving. A review of US foreign assistance programmes is under way to ensure they are efficient and consistent with the America First agenda or doctrine. The completion date for the review is 19 April. However, we are aware of this issue of a large number of termination notices late last week for USAID projects and programmes. The pause and subsequent termination notices have immediately affected partners, initiatives and projects in receipt of USAID funding. The work of organisations working directly or indirectly on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, or on environmental justice, is also affected. This includes women's rights organisations.

Before I go into specific detail, I wish to state that women and gender more generally is a huge priority for me within this role. I set that out from the get-go. I have consistency. We have underlined in the programme for Government - I have reiterated it and will be laying out a bit more in a speech to the National Women's Council tomorrow morning - our commitment to women and girls in Afghanistan. This is a specific programme. When I travel next week to Tanzania, which Senator Stephenson referenced, an entire day will be dedicated to women's health and women's and girls' education, as well as governance and access democracy in Tanzania alone, particularly the work in relation to the Fistula Foundation in a clinic there that has been run and funded by Irish Aid. If it were not for the support of Irish people, women in Tanzania would not be receiving the most basic of healthcare that we take for granted in this jurisdiction. That is why I insisted that area was a priority.

I was at Science Blast yesterday in RDS Simmonscourt where Irish Aid had a stand. I am delighted that when it asked all the children to choose their favourite STG, and it was very interactive, gender came out on top, which was great. However, we have a lot more work to do. More pertinently, the impact of the US decisions is expected to be, as the Senator laid out, particularly pronounced in the areas of global health, gender equality, governance and human rights decisions, such as withdrawal from the WHO, and the possible defunding of PEPFAR, the US President's emergency plan for AIDS relief. This will have a deep and far-reaching impact on our ability to achieve health and well-being for all. Low-income and fragile countries are also expected to be affected due to their reliance on ODA.

The Government has collaborated with the US administration and USAID in recent years in several global and country programmes that support sustainable development and humanitarian response. Ireland remains firmly committed to our international development assistance programme and its overriding priorities. It would clearly not be viable for Ireland to make up the funding shortfall as a result of USAID and other countries’ budget cuts. However, we are absolutely committed to playing our part.

The Government has utterly reaffirmed Ireland's commitment to an annual increase in our ODA budget, working towards the 0.7% of GNI. Specifically on EU counterparts, this was raised at the EU Development, DEVE, Council and I will make sure it is on the agenda. I will work very closely with Barry Andrews, MEP, who is chair of the European Parliament's DEVE committee. Equally, when we have a DEVE Council meeting here in about 18 months' time, I will make sure that this is a key topic regarding the wider agenda.

The Tánaiste spoke with Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, yesterday, and this was raised with him. Indeed, there are an abundance of areas where I will make sure this is brought to for in the very immediate future.

Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats)
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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.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I really appreciate the Senator giving us this opportunity and I fundamentally agree with every point she made. I want to put the following on the record of this House. We, in Ireland, have a responsibility in the coming weeks and months to stand up for what is right in the world, and we do that well. We believe in the multilateral order, in the work of the United Nations and in maintaining our commitment. Yes, the US is responsible for 27% of global overseas development aid but the EU is responsible for over 40%. Therefore, we have a twin challenge here. How do we work to offset potential changes to the funding of UN bodies? How do we work to offset really vital country programmes? Equally, however, how do we make sure the agenda of the EU is not changed because developments in the United States may give carte blanche to European Union member states Union that have already cut their budgets and to other Europe countries as well?

I regret the fact Anneliese Dodds has had to step down. I was really looking forward to meeting her this week but we have a responsibility within the EU. I look forward to working with Senator Stephenson and, indeed, my party colleague, Senator Lynch, who is our international secretary, to make sure the EU stands up and is counted, and that we stick by the global south. Ireland has a unique role to play in this. I will be extremely loud over the coming weeks and months, domestically and internationally, standing up for that, and I know the Senator will join the chorus with me.