Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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88. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the action that Ireland has taken in relation to the famine in the Horn of Africa; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57644/22]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I saw for myself the devastation in the Horn of Africa when I visited Kenya and South Sudan recently.  In response to the urgency of the situation, the Government has provided an additional €30 million in immediate humanitarian assistance for the region. This funding will bring Ireland’s total direct assistance to the region in 2022 to over €100 million. It builds on Ireland’s existing support, providing lifesaving humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable while also laying the groundwork for building resilience and development.

In addition, communities in the Horn are being supported through Ireland’s contributions to multilateral humanitarian action, such as the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which reacts immediately to crises as they happen. Ireland is the eighth largest contributor to CERF, providing €11.5 million in 2022. Since 2021, the CERF has allocated over $306 million across the region.

More broadly, Ireland has been a long-standing champion of global efforts to reduce hunger and malnutrition. As focal point on hunger and conflict at the Security Council, we have highlighted the underlying causes of food insecurity and the links between conflict and hunger.

We have also underlined the importance of the recent conclusions approved by the Foreign Affairs Council on the Team Europe response to global food insecurity.  The EU has pledged over €600 million in support of the Horn of Africa. As part of the overall EU Global Food Security Response, the EU will contribute over €5 billion in humanitarian and development assistance for global food security from 2021 to 2024.