Micheál Martin
Question:143. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if Ireland's overseas development aid was discussed when he visited the UN. [39565/18]
View answerTuesday, 2 October 2018
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In June 2018 the Taoiseach launched Global Ireland, a plan to double Ireland’s global impact by 2025. Amongst other things, it committed the Government to publishing a White Paper on Ireland’s International Development Cooperation and to delivering 0.7% of GNI to Overseas Development Assistance by 2030.
At the United Nations General Assembly last week the Tánaiste reaffirmed this commitment. At a side event, the Tánaiste pledged that as part of this scaling up Ireland would increase its contribution to education by €75 million (44%) over the next five years.
While at the United Nations last week, the Tánaiste and I had tens of meetings daily, with senior UN officials, with representatives of Irish Aid recipient countries, and with other key influencers, as well as actively participating in policy debates on a wide range of issues pertinent to Ireland’s development cooperation. In addition, a considerable number of official level meetings also took place on development cooperation themes.
Among the important and diverse issues raised in the New York meetings were the situation in Palestine and Syria; addressing communicable diseases such as TB; women, peace and security; education in conflict; and climate and sustainable development. Ireland’s role as the chair of the OCHA donor support group provided a context for some of these discussions.
A central theme in meetings was the importance Ireland attaches to a well-functioning multilateral system and for the rules-based system.
The new international development policy, to be published before the end of this year, will inform how Ireland’s official aid programme will continue to support multilateralism in the years ahead, particularly in the context of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. There was keen interest among partners in New York in the public consultation process on the new policy, not least as many UN agencies contributed to the written consultation.