Opening statement by Neale Richmond, Minister of State with responsibility for International Development and Diaspora

Check against delivery

Thank you for this opportunity to engage with the Committee on my responsibilities as Minister of State for International Development and the Diaspora.

I share the long-standing commitment of this Committee to deepening ties with the Irish Abroad. The Programme for Government commits to delivering a new Diaspora Strategy. I am determined to ensure that our relationship with the Global Irish is one that recognises their aspirations and needs. I am engaging with our communities across the world. I have already been in London, Nairobi and Brussels. I will travel to Boston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia next week, with future planned engagements in Britain, the US and the Middle East. I have also invited all Oireachtas members to a discussion on the new strategy on 26 June and that will be followed by the launch of an online consultation before the end of the summer.

Our Emigrant Support Programme continues to makes a real difference. This year, €16.5 million will be granted for diaspora supports. Some 60%- is allocated to frontline welfare care for our elderly immigrants and others who are vulnerable. I also want to support emigrants looking to return home. I know many of you have expressed support for a driving licence exchange agreement with US states. Work is underway and I will be raising this when I am in the US next week.

Since taking up this role, I have travelled to Kenya, Tanzania, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and I will visit South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, whilst representing Ireland at the G20 in July. I want to see for myself what the focus on the furthest behind first in our aid programme means in practice. I would also like to invite the committee to undertake a visit to a number of our partner countries in Africa. I look forward to continued engagement with the Committee in this regard.

The government has provided the highest ever budget for the Irish Aid programme for 2025: €810 million. It is achieving important results. For instance on maternal health, where progress in recent decades has stalled, and may go backwards. Every day, over 700 women in poor countries die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. These are unnecessary deaths. The developed world has the capacity to end them and to build systems in developing countries to ensure that progress is maintained.

Ireland has invested in maternal and new-born health since the very first days of our aid programme, and will continue to do so. This is particularly important in complex and protracted humanitarian crises and conflicts, where pregnant women, new mothers and their infants are especially vulnerable. For instance, our support for the World Health Organisation Contingency Fund for emergencies helped provide care for 30,000 children under five and deliver 750 babies in six months of the conflict in Gaza. It is providing pre- and post-natal care for over 1,000 women and delivering 570 babies a month in the crisis in Haiti.

One area of maternal health that I believe demonstrates, in practical terms, the impact that Ireland is having is in regard to pre-eclampsia [high blood pressure], an unpleasant but easily treatable condition familiar to many. However, in the Global South, it can be fatal.

Pre-eclampsia causes 46,000 maternal deaths every year, and half a million miscarriages or still births. Ireland has provided €4 million over the three year period 2022-25 to the Clinton Health Access initiative (CHAI) in Mozambique to increase the early detection of treatable conditions such as pre-eclampsia.

Ireland is supporting the use of innovative technology to diagnose pre-eclampsia in pregnant women. Early detection is essential to facilitate treatment. In 2024, Ireland helped train more than 450 maternal health workers and screen over 115,000 pregnant women for pre-eclampsia. Our support helped save 5,000 mothers in one year.

Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is central to our work. It is a pre-requisite for any progress on sustainable development. We need to ensure that progress on gender equality is protected against the growing pushback on the rights of women and girls.

The government is committed to maintaining the level of our ODA, which totalled over €2.2 billion in 2024. In the face of humanitarian crisis, setbacks on global poverty and hunger and the existential threat of climate change, ODA is more needed than ever. Our commitment includes a promise to more than double our international climate finance by this year, to at least €225 million annually. We will achieve that target.

Recent cutbacks in ODA by some major donors are having devastating effects, especially on health systems and treatment for HIV / AIDS in Southern Africa. The longer term impacts on vulnerable communities will be huge. Ireland is staying the course and working closely in the EU to ensure that we coordinate support for our UN and other partners as they restructure and re-prioritise. I am in close contact with Ireland’s development NGOs, on an ongoing basis, to ensure that our support for them is as predictable and flexible as possible in this crisis.

Over the past 18 months, we have witnessed the unfolding of a humanitarian catastrophe of staggering proportions in Gaza. Over 52,000 people have been killed, more than 120,000 injured, and 90% of the population displaced – some up to 13 times. We also cannot lose sight of the situation unfolding in the West Bank where Israel is conducting its single largest military operation in 20 years. Ireland has stepped up its material support - over €87 million has been provided since January 2023. This includes €58 million for UNRWA since 2023. We also strongly welcome progress on the review of the EU Israeli Association Agreement. We will maintain our focus on this crisis, on the suffering in Sudan and in Ukraine, and on other humanitarian crises which do not receive the same media attention.

In concluding, I would make point that multilateral responses are required now more than ever, but the multilateral system is under significant pressure. The UN has been a cornerstone of Ireland’s foreign policy for seventy years. And the UN is at a pivotal moment, one which creates an opportunity to deliver on ambitious and urgent reform. Ireland is actively engaging with the UN80 process, through the EU and also in liaison with like-minded donors; agencies and partner countries. I believe this initiative needs to be pursued with great urgency.

In the second half of next year Ireland will take on the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, in an increasingly complex geopolitical environment. Negotiations on the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework will form a central aspect to our work. Our approach will be to manage the EU agenda well, but also to focus on those areas where we can make an effective contribution based on our values.

I look forward to our discussions today.