Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

450. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the increase to official development assistance announced in the budget in real terms; the meaning for the percentage spend on official development assistance for 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53093/21]

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

451. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if in view of budget 2022, he will now publish a roadmap to reaching 0.7% of GNI on official development assistance by 2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53094/21]

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

452. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the oversight his Department has on official development assistance in the context of international aid allocated to other Departments in the context of budget 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53097/21]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 450, 451 and 452 together.

In Budget 2022 €1.044 billion was allocated to overseas development aid, the highest ever amount allocated to ODA by any Government. This is an increase of €176 million on the 2021 allocation or, in percentage terms, a 20.3% increase in the overall cash allocation.

Given the strength of the economic recovery, I anticipate that this will correspond to 0.32% of GNI for 2022.

While I am very proud that we have increased our ODA so considerably this year, I recognize the need to continue to strive for increases in GNI percentage terms in order to reach the 0.7% GNI goal by 2030.

This must be balanced against the need to manage the large cash increases required. My Department is currently reviewing and building systems that will enable our development programme to grow further, including as a proportion of GNI, in a sustainable and responsible way. This includes working in coordination with the many other Government Departments and bodies spending Official Development Assistance, and with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on how a growing ODA allocation can be managed most effectively across Departments. This work will inform whether it might be possible and appropriate to provide a roadmap to 0.7% for 2030.

The overseas development aid allocation for 2022 will be distributed across a number of ODA-disbursing Departments including the Department of Finance, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Health, and the Department of Children, Equality, Youth, Inclusion and Disability. It also includes an increase in Ireland's contribution to the EU development instrument, NDICI. Once finalised, the proposed allocations for 2022 will be reviewed by the Interdepartmental Committee on ODA in its final meeting this year.

Ireland, through my Department, reports to the OECD Development Assistance Committee on overall expenditure on ODA, against a set of internationally agreed statistical standards. These reports are made in the year after expenditure and form the basis for the tables in the Government's annual report on international development. The 2020 annual report will be published next month. The full 2022 expenditure will be detailed in the corresponding annual report.