257. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether her Department maintains any formal written definition distinguishing abortion services, post-abortion care, abortion-related advocacy, reproductive-health policy activity, and maternal healthcare within Official Development Assistance reporting frameworks; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36810/26]

258. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether any recipient organisation of Irish Official Development Assistance funding is contractually prohibited from using Irish taxpayer funding, directly or indirectly, for the provision, promotion, or advocacy of abortion services internationally; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36811/26]

259. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether her Department has conducted any assessment of fungibility risks whereby Irish Official Development Assistance funding provided to multilateral organisations may indirectly support abortion-related activity through pooled funding arrangements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36812/26]

260. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether her Department requires recipient organisations receiving sexual and reproductive health funding to separately identify expenditure on maternal healthcare, contraception, HIV prevention, post-abortion care, abortion-related advocacy, and abortion-service provision in financial reporting; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36813/26]

261. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether any independent audit or verification process is applied by her Department to outcome metrics supplied by recipient organisations relating to "unsafe abortions averted", unintended pregnancies prevented, or related reproductive-health indicators; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36814/26]

262. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether Ireland has ever raised concerns, objections, abstentions, or reservations at UN Executive Board level regarding abortion-related programming, advocacy, terminology, or reporting by organisations receiving Irish Official Development Assistance funding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36815/26]

263. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether her Department can identify, from existing reporting systems, the proportion of Irish sexual and reproductive health funding allocated specifically to maternal health, contraception, HIV prevention, post-abortion care, and abortion-related advocacy respectively in each year since 2019; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36816/26]

264. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether her Department maintains a central register identifying organisations in receipt of Irish Official Development Assistance funding which publicly campaign for changes to abortion laws internationally; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36817/26]

265. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether any legal advice has been sought since 2019 regarding the compatibility of pooled multilateral funding arrangements with Government assurances that Irish taxpayer funding is not used for abortion-related purposes internationally; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36818/26]

266. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether the Department intends to introduce a more detailed expenditure-classification and reporting framework for sexual and reproductive health funding in order to improve transparency and public accountability regarding the end-use of Irish overseas aid funding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36819/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265 and 266 together.

The Government's policy for international development, A Better World, recognises sexual and reproductive health and rights as fundamental to women's health and essential for gender equality.

Sexual and reproductive health refers to a broad range of services that can include contraception, fertility and infertility care, maternal care, and, protection from sexual and gender-based violence.

Ireland’s development cooperation is informed by World Health Organisation standards and guidance. The promotion or provision of abortion is not a central element of our development cooperation programmes, and no funding is earmarked for this purpose. Furthermore, in line with WHO norms, abortion is not promoted as a method of family planning. We place a particular emphasis on measures such as contraception and education to prevent unintended pregnancies, including in humanitarian settings. This helps in the achievement of better health outcomes for children, and the reduction of maternal mortality, unsafe abortion, and the incidence of obstetric fistula.

Health care and service providers supported with Official Development Assistance (ODA) are required to adhere to relevant national laws and regulations and WHO standards and guidelines for care. In the management and oversight of ODA, Ireland classifies and reports on all funding in line with the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) purpose codes. Ireland engages actively with the DAC and its relevant working groups to agree ODA classifications and provide an internationally comparable basis for describing, measuring and reporting on ODA in a transparent and publically accountable manner. Donors are not required to maintain additional definitions or apply a further classification system

Prior to funding decisions, programmes are assessed to ensure that planned activities will meet identified needs. All funding arrangements are backed up by grant agreements, or contracts. While contracts do not include exhaustive listings of precluded or prohibited actions for specific sectors or operating environments, the Department reserves the right to reduce grants, stop transfers, withhold future payments, or seek refunds if contractual obligations are not met, including where expenditure is deemed to be materially at odds with the spirit and intention of the award.

There is a robust system in place to ensure Ireland’s ODA is used for its intended purpose from point of payment through to the final point of expenditure. In the management and oversight of ODA, fungibility risks, like all risks, are assessed through upfront due diligence assessments of programmes and partners, including in regard to fund flows and financial controls, to ensure funding will be used for the intended purpose. This applies to all organisations, and for direct and pooled funding arrangements. Following grant approval, all risks continue to be monitored through periodic financial and narrative reporting, audit findings, monitoring meetings, and ongoing engagement with the recipient organisation. The relevance and efficacy of the Department’s approach to the management and oversight of ODA, including the comprehensive set of checks and balances, is kept under review, including through periodic reviews undertaken by the OECD DAC, which has found internal and external controls to be effective. In this regard, it has not been considered necessary to obtain legal advice specifically on the issue of the compatibility of pooled multilateral mechanisms with Government policy on sexual and reproductive health.

In tracking and reporting end-use of funding, organisations typically report against a pre-agreed set of activities and results, or outcomes, and related expenditure plans. There is no requirement to record or report on proportionate expenditure against all outcomes relevant for the broad sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda. However, organisations are required to present and report against activities, outcomes and expenditure in line with their known areas of expertise, including, for example, the prevention and treatment of HIV, family planning or maternal health. Intended outcomes are set out in strategies and detailed programme documents which are appraised and assessed prior to any funding decisions, in line with the Department’s Standard Approach to Grant Management. Results reported by ODA recipients are typically verified through a combination of desk and in-person monitoring and independent evaluation. Progress and performance is additionally assessed and discussed through partner and donor group meetings, including where relevant through participation in UN Executive Boards. Executive Boards provide intergovernmental support to and supervision of UN agency activities in accordance with the policy guidance of the UN General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and the United Nations Charter.

The Department maintains comprehensive records in relation to all organisations in receipt of Irish Official Development Assistance, including full information on the purpose of funding, in line with OECD DAC reporting requirements.