Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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28. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his plans to develop a roadmap to reach the 0.7% ODA-GNP target. [48313/17]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The Government is strongly committed to Ireland’s overseas development cooperation programme and to its place at the heart of our foreign policy. Our policy for International Development, “One World, One Future”, clearly articulates our commitment to the UN target of providing 0.7% of Gross National Product (GNP) in Official Development Assistance (ODA), as economic conditions allow.

In the current Programme for Government we have set out our ambition to make progress towards the UN target as resources permit. Progress needs to be made in a sustainable and manageable way, which continues to strengthen Ireland's recognised role as a reliable and effective partner in contributing to ending global poverty and hunger and providing humanitarian assistance.

During the very difficult economic circumstances of recent years, the Government managed to stabilise and largely protect allocations to ODA. Since 2011 we have made annual contributions in excess of €600 million and have cumulatively allocated over of €4.5 billion in the period 2011 to 2017.

For 2018, the Government has allocated just over €707 million for ODA, the third consecutive year ODA has increased. The bilateral aid programme, Irish Aid, managed by my Department, will increase by €13.5 million on last year bringing the Irish Aid budget to over €500 million for the first time since 2012.

We remain committed to making incremental, sustainable progress towards achieving the 0.7% UN target by 2030, over the period of the Sustainable Development Goals. Reaching this target will involve significant annual increases to the ODA budget.

This will require careful planning and in consultation with other government departments, I along with Minister Coveney, intend to present a paper to Cabinet in February 2018, outlining how ODA assistance will be spent across government and by Irish Aid as we see growth in the ODA budget. This paper will form the basis of further consultations with strategic stakeholders and the development of a new policy document on Irish Aid.