Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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131. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to outline Ireland's official position on global debt refinancing and forgiveness; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43767/25]

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Tackling the international arrangements to handle global debt issues is a complex and difficult process, in part due to the growing prominence of non-traditional creditors and the historical accumulation of debt owed to various countries. However, the Government is clear that efforts need to continue in order to provide timely, predictable and fair debt restructuring and relief for developing countries.

The Paris Club, of which Ireland is a member, works to find coordinated appropriate solutions to debt sustainability challenges in borrowing countries in a timely manner. The outcome document from the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, which I attended in early July, contains a number of ambitious and comprehensive measures to address the debt situation. We lend our support to further strengthening the G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments, establishing a borrower’s platform, and operationalising the Small Island Development States (SIDS) Debt Sustainability Support Service.

In line with the commitments made at the Seville Conference we recognize the need to assist developing countries in attaining long-term debt sustainability through coordinated policies aimed at fostering debt financing, debt relief, debt restructuring and sound debt management, as appropriate.

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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132. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if Ireland will be advocating for debt forgiveness for lower income countries to address the global aid shortfalls; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43768/25]

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The Government shares the concern that growing debt servicing costs continue to constrain the fiscal space for many developing countries, potentially translating into reductions in expenditure on health, education and social protection. This threatens to increase poverty and inequality, disproportionately affecting the furthest behind.

It is also clear that the decisions by a number of developed countries to cut their Official Development Assistance (ODA) budgets is already having an impact. Given the ongoing uncertainty and volatility, we are continuing to assess the immediate and long-term effects with our partners. Ireland continues to cooperate closely with the EU and Members States on the EU’s collective response to the funding declines, while being clear that the EU will not be able to fill all the gaps.

On debt specifically, there are a range of international institutions and initiatives that assist countries with debt issues. These include the G20, which has developed, and is overseeing the implementation of, the Common Framework for Debt Treatments; the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable, which is chaired by the IMF, the World Bank and the G20 Presidency and is working to build greater common understanding on debt sustainability and ways to address debt restructuring challenges; and the Paris Club, of which we are a member, which is a group of creditor countries which works to find coordinated solutions to debt sustainability challenges in borrowing countries.

We support all of these initiatives, including as a guest country in the G20, and continue to call, where appropriate, for reform and improvements. Ireland is not a significant creditor, which means we are generally not actively involved in discussions on specific country situations. Nevertheless, we will continue to engage in debt sustainability issues, particularly as they affect countries where we operate our bilateral development programmes.