Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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15. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which Ireland continues to respond to the needs of poorer communities, often beset by war, famine and national disasters; the extent to which membership of the United Nations Security Council can be used as a means of accelerating help that is needed in such challenging situations; the extent to which Ireland continues to promote assistance through the bilateral aid or multilateral aid programmes; the extent to which such activity has increased in recent times; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3878/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland's international development policy, A Better World, published in 2019, guides Ireland's humanitarian and development responses to those in need, in particular those affected by war, famine and other disasters.

In the 2020 peer review of Ireland’s development cooperation programme, the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) highlighted Ireland as "an excellent humanitarian partner", with its funding models "useful inspiration for other DAC donors". Ireland is also consistently found to be the most principled donor by the respected international thinktank ODI, in particular for our focus on those furthest behind.

Since taking up our seat on the UN Security Council last year, Ireland has consistently called for full respect of human rights and international humanitarian law, and unhindered humanitarian access to all those in need. Last year, Ireland and Norway successfully led negotiations on the renewal of the critical Syria humanitarian cross-border resolution. It ensured that life-saving humanitarian aid was able to continue to reach 3.4 million Syrian men, women and children in the northwest of the country.

We have also worked hard to ensure that the Security Council’s attention is focused on the humanitarian and human rights situations in many parts of the world. Security Council attention to such situations as Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Myanmar and Yemen will remain a priority throughout the rest of our term.

My Department is implementing a comprehensive approach to our work in conflict-affected settings. This uses our development cooperation assistance, our political engagement and partnerships, and our membership of the UN Security Council to deliver for those in greatest need. This approach ensures that humanitarian, development and peace activities are coordinated under common objectives, and it puts “lasting peace” for affected communities at the centre of all our actions.

Decisions about the channels for the delivery of aid, be it bilateral or multilateral, are informed by the circumstances and context of a given crisis or development need. The United Nations system and the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent are important partners given their ability to respond. Amongst OECD countries, Ireland allocates one of the highest percentages of our development assistance to NGOs, while Ireland's partner countries in Africa and elsewhere are an expression of our bilateral solidarity.