Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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108. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which Irish overseas development aid continues to arrive at its planned targets throughout the various intended locations globally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46607/19]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Ireland’s development cooperation programme is delivered through a broad range of partners and channels, including partner Government systems, Irish and international Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and missionary organisations, and UN and other multilateral agencies and organisations. The ability of funding channels to reach the furthest behind first and deliver on the policy priorities of gender equality, reducing humanitarian need, climate action and strengthening governance is to the forefront of Ireland’s engagement.

The Government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) annual report, published last month, outlines the range of partners involved and the geographic spread of Ireland’s development cooperation programme. We have a particular focus on poverty reduction in Africa – predominately in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia – where our resident Embassies allow Ireland to play a key role in long-term development. A similar strategic role is provided by the Embassy to Vietnam. We also support smaller, more focused programmes in countries and territories such as Palestine, Liberia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Ireland’s development cooperation programme has been independently verified as being of a high quality, not only in successive OECD Development Assistance Committee peer review reports, but also by the Overseas Development Institute, which ranks Ireland as the world’s leading donor in targeting extreme poverty.