Irish foreign aid spending
Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill calls for a debate on Irish Aid, questioning the borrowing used to fund it, how money reaches beneficiaries and whether adequate economic assessments have been conducted.
I call for a debate on the foreign aid we provide, mentioned by Senator Michael Mullins. The recently published OECD report on foreign aid stated that all of the €600 million a year spent on foreign aid is borrowed and paid for by the taxpayer. Approximately 75% of that money actually goes to banks and other institutions and does not get fed down to the people on the ground. We should have a debate. In light of the homelessness situation in this country, as a society we have to decide where we want to spend money, where we want to spend money that is not borrowed, and how we want to look after our own people in the overall context of solidarity and poverty.
Comment on this
We have a poverty crisis in every constituency in the country. We can blame whomever we like for that poverty. The Government has a responsibility to defend the rights of every citizen and not just the rich and the bankers. We should have a debate on where that money is spent and whether the Government has carried out economic appraisals of how the money is spent. The information made available to me is that no such appraisal has been carried out.
I ask the Leader to facilitate a debate in the presence of the Minister for Justice and Equality and any other relevant Minister on the issue of private investigations and private investigators. A newspaper article on the subject was published earlier this week. Over the weekend I met three families on whom private investigative reports had been carried out by insurance companies, by a bank and by the HSE. Some of the information collated by the insurance company was used by the Department of Social Protection in making a decision on whether an individual was entitled to carer's allowance, which is disgraceful behaviour. It is a totally unregulated industry. Not only were the individuals followed by private investigators, who are paid approximately €100 an hour, but children were followed, and photographs and video recordings were taken. Movements, including following people to the toilet, were observed in cafeterias. I have read some of the report. It is alarming.