Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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678. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the amount of Ireland's contribution to the EU trust fund for Africa; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27107/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has committed to providing €3 million to the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa over the period 2016-2020. This involves five annual payments of €600,000 to the Trust Fund. Our contribution is earmarked for the Horn of Africa Region, which includes Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda, key partner countries for our development programme. The Trust Fund was launched in November 2015 at the EU-Africa Summit on migration in Valletta, as a response to the development challenges in migrants’ home countries. The Trust Fund is implemented through economic programmes that create employment opportunities, support resilience in terms of food security, livelihoods and basic services for local populations, and improve migration management, including by combatting human trafficking and smuggling. It also works to support vital improvements in overall governance. The level of our contribution entitles Ireland to membership of the Board of the Trust Fund and of the Operational Committee for the Trust Fund’s Horn of Africa window, which considers and approves programming under the Trust Fund for the Horn of Africa Region.

Ireland consistently advocates for the Trust Fund to focus primarily on addressing the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement, not least because it is financed overwhelmingly from the development and humanitarian budgets of the EU and of its Member States. We will continue to work to ensure that this emphasis is maintained to the greatest extent possible.