Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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46. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the target date set by his Department for reaching the 0.7% ODA GNP target; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53972/17]

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 Income (GNI) in Official Development Assistance (ODA), as economic conditions allow.

The current Programme for Government sets out our ambition to make progress towards the UN target as resources permit. This progress needs to be made in a sustainable and manageable way, building on Ireland's recognised role as a reliable and effective partner in contributing to ending global poverty and hunger, and in providing humanitarian assistance. For 2016 – the most recently published OECD statistics, Ireland contributed 0.33% of GNI to Official Development Assistance.

In line with EU member states, we remain committed to making incremental, sustainable and manageable progress towards achieving the 0.7% UN target by 2030, over the period of the Sustainable Development Goals. Reaching this target will involve significant increases to the ODA budget and requires careful planning and consultation with other Government Departments and stakeholders. This ambitious pathway towards making greater but sustainable progress on the UN target w ill be informed by the new White Paper on Ireland’s development assistance programme which will be produced next year.