Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 January 2021
257. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs when the full details in the 2019 annual report of overseas development aid disbursements, that are usually included as annexes in previous reports, are to be published by his Department. [2267/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Department of Foreign Affairs publishes the Irish Aid Annual Report on Ireland's Official Development Assistance, which includes statistical annexes based on material provided by a number of Government Departments and the Revenue Commissioners, in addition to that generated by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Prior to publication, draft statistical returns are run by the relevant OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) experts for assurance that Ireland's reported spend meets the DAC's criteria to be counted as ODA. This assurance is important to maintaining Ireland's reputation as a quality donor.
The 2019 Annual Report on the Government's Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme was launched on 10 November 2020. The text is available on the Irish Aid website. To enable publication of the 2019 report during 2020, it was decided to go ahead without the full complement of statistical annexes - there were a number of annexes whose progress through the DAC assurance process was delayed, in part due to changed work arrangements arising from COVID-19. Three of the outstanding annexes have since been published on the Irish Aid website and the final three annexes will be published on the Irish Aid website before the end of January.
