Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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International climate action is a key priority for the Government. We are committed to supporting actions and measures that address climate change and we recognise that Official Development Assistance (ODA) is an important source of funding for this work. Climate-related ODA is directed to countries and communities that are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, such as Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States.

The Government has made significant progress in supporting climate action in developing countries. This has been achieved through integrating climate action, particularly climate resilience and adaptation, into development programming. It has also involved the provision of increased climate-specific funding for activities in developing countries, as part of an overall increase in Ireland’s ODA budget.

Between 2016 and 2021, Ireland’s overall international climate finance has increased by 40%. The Government's International Climate Finance Roadmap(2022) sets out how we will meet the commitment of providing €225 million per year in climate finance to developing countries by 2025. This represents a more than doubling of our climate finance on 2020 levels. The Roadmap states clearly that Ireland’s climate finance targets should be achieved in a complementary fashion with the achievement of Ireland’s other international development cooperation priorities.

In order to ensure full transparency in reporting ODA, Ireland reports both its climate finance and ODA spend to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which assesses and verifies our reports. This reporting procedure is in line with international standards and procedures.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland's international development programme is focused on the eradication of poverty and hunger and improving the lives of vulnerable communities in developing countries.

We seek to reflect these objectives across all of our engagement on development cooperation whether in bilateral or multilateral frameworks.

Naturally these fundamental values also underline our engagement on EU development cooperation activity.

Regarding our share of spending from the EU Budget which can be counted as part of what Ireland provides in Official Development Assistance (ODA), this is, by definition, used to fund activities which meet ODA criteria, the fundamental principle of which is that the primary purpose must be the economic development and welfare of developing countries. Border security and migration control facilities do not meet these criteria.

In terms of specific examples which illustrate our preferred approach, I would cite the European Union Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF). Ireland provided bilateral contributions to EUTF totalling €15.755 between 2017 and 2020. While support provided through the EUTF addressed improved migration management, it did not include any funding for the construction or operation of detention centres or similar facilities.

Ireland's ODA is regularly peer-assessed by the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC). In its most recent review, conducted in 2020, the OECD DAC underlined that Ireland's development programme continues to be highly regarded and focused on appropriate and core development priorities.