Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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217. To ask the Minister for Finance the amount which will be spent on official development assistance in 2018; the recipients of this ODA; and the amount each recipient will receive. [45771/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The table below relates to funding provided by my Department which is returned as Official Development Assistance (ODA). As you will be aware Ireland, as a member of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC), must report, on an annual basis, a detailed statistical analysis of total Official Development Assistance (ODA). This composite return, which is co-ordinated by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is usually prepared in the first quarter of the subsequent year and accordingly the official figures for 2018 are not yet available. I have therefore included the figures for 2017 for my Department, the latest figures available, for the Deputy’s information.

*The OECD Development Assistance Committee have decreed that 85% of contributions to the AIIB are eligible to be recorded as ODA. The figure shows the amount reckonable for ODA purpose out of an overall contribution of €4.54m.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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218. To ask the Minister for Finance the amount the Revenue Commissioners will spend on official development assistance in 2018; the recipients of this ODA; and the amount each recipient will receive. [45772/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by Revenue that, while it does not contribute financially to official development assistance, Revenue does regularly respond to requests for its officers to provide direct technical assistance to tax authorities in both developing and developed countries.

In the last number of years Revenue has organised workshops for visiting tax officials from Oman, Namibia, Moldova, Croatia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Kenya and Albania. In 2018 visiting delegations were from developed countries – Japan, Malaysia and Denmark – and these working visits addressed a variety of subject areas, including data management, debt management, training and digital services.

In 2018 Revenue provided speakers to participate in the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administration (CATA)Senior Leadership Programme. CATA helps its 46 participating countries to develop effective tax administrations that promote sustained development and good governance. In 2018 also, Revenue officers provided training to tax officers from a wide variety of developing countries through the OECD’s Global Relations Programme. These training sessions addressed international tax dispute resolution, negotiation of double tax agreements, and exchange of information between tax authorities. The participants in these training courses were mainly tax auditors from African and Asian countries.