Minister 'would have no issue' addressing US aid cuts with Trump as Irish support increases
James Cox
A Minister of State has said he "would have no problem" telling US president Donald Trump that American aid cuts are costing lives if given the opportunity during Trump's expected visit in September.
As Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond oversees Ireland's global aid and development funding.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) saw its budget virtually wiped out shortly after the beginning of Trump's second administration, with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) responsible.
In an interview with BreakingNews.ie, Richmond said: "It's just a statement of fact. There have been very deep cuts to overseas development assistance by many countries, but primarily the US who literally overnight abolished USAID... one of the foremost development agencies in the world. Overnight staff had their computers turned off and their contracts voided.
"I would absolutely have no problem saying this to president Trump if he visits and I got the opportunity. When I visited Washington a few weeks ago that was part of my remit. I engaged with diaspora contacts but I also met with House of Representative members from both parties. Even Democrats didn't appreciate how serious the assault on the global development system has been.
"Two years ago America was 27 per cent of the global development infrastructure, that's gone overnight. Today we have the EU and its member states over 53 per cent, throw in Norway and Britain and that's two thirds of the world's global development infrastructure."
He added: "This is having very real consequences and is costing lives, people can't get medicine. Humanitarian workers don't have the resources. For 25 years we saw the rates of HIV/Aids infections going down, now they're going back up, the rates of malaria infection are going back up, maternal and infant mortality in the Global South is going back up.
"We see famine in Gaza and Sudan, last year was the deadliest year on record for humanitarian aid workers, it's no longer a political conversation or debate, it's no longer opinion, the results of the cuts can be clearly seen."
"Why have we engaged with Americans to make this clear? Firstly you have to build that coalition for whatever comes after president Trump to see if we can get USAID back," he explained.
"It's not a red or blue issue in the US... George W Bush of all people was a committed supporter of USAID. Cindy McCain has just stepped down as executive director of the World Food Programme. She's likely to be replaced by a US politician who I met in Washington and made the case clearly that you have to make sure it receives not just monetary support in the US but that many American farmers rely on selling to the World Food Programme... soy beans and other crops that can be deployed into difficult situations rapidly.
"I also met with a man called Ryan Shrum who is leading a new agency. You don't necessarily go into these meetings to have a row, you go to make the point and see what you can salvage.
"There has been good success with UNOCHA [United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs], led by Tom Fletcher, he has managed to get another €2 billion from the US to put into humanitarian crisis situations such as in Sudan.
"Some humanitarian support has been salvaged from the US and we welcome that, but in the days and weeks after the Trump administration took power everything was cut with DOGE.
"I met countless people who had been working in USAID and the US State Department who overnight not only found themselves unemployed but found their lives' work decimated."
EU Presidency
He said Ireland's EU Presidency is a chance to push for continued commitment and investment in overseas aid and development.
"We will continue to work with others to make sure under our EU Presidency that we secure the EU's development and humanitarian programme. To keep pushing the US to say 'let's get something back together', and to encourage the British to stop their cuts."
Richmond said Ireland is an outlier in increasing its aid buget last year, as European countries cutting their aid budget has "compounded" the damage done by US withdrawal.
In Budget 2026, Ireland's Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget reached a record €840 million, an increase of €30 million from 2025. Managed by Irish Aid under the Department of Foreign Affairs, the budget prioritises humanitarian assistance in crises like Gaza and Sudan, child malnutrition, and climate finance.
I've been very clear on this, aid cuts are costing lives.
"We've seen the UK going from 0.5 per cent of GNI [Gross National Income] to 0.3 per cent, we see countries like Belgium saying they have to cut their aid budgets due to internal budgetary decisions.
"I sit around European Council meetings with Finnish and Swedish ministers who would have traditionally been very big donor countries who are relishing in cutting aid.
"We saw that rhetoric before the presidential election in the US and since.
"I've been very clear on this, aid cuts are costing lives. I've travelled to 12 of Ireland's 14 programme countries in the last calendar year and you can see speaking to partner organisations, they are running out. I've been in hospitals in Zimbabwe where they have a two-week store of medicine, spoken with partners working in women's health in Sub-Saharan Africa who would have relied on American support and due to financial cuts they can't carry out their work.
"Irish aid agencies like Trócaire, Concern, GOAL, they've all had to cut hundreds of staff working in the most vulnerable of conditions and regions.
"It's compounded by the fact we have a climate emergency that's worsening, we see the Straits of Hormuz closure having a very real impact on food supplies into the poorest regions."
Richmond pointed to aid cuts not only costing lives, but fuelling global instability and terrorism.
"When you remove development and humanitarian assistance from the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, that drives people through to the likes of Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram.
"It puts energy and food security under pressure, it drives irregular mass migration. Last year the two largest groups to seek refuge in the EU came from Syria where we saw a change of regime, and Mali which has seen massive resources taken out in terms of humanitarian support.
"That's what we are doing. When I host a development ministers meeting in Dublin in October, it will be made very clear that the future of development cooperation is on the line.
"When I attended my first development ministers council meeting a year ago it was quite depressing. It was that Trumpian logic that development doesn't work. The thing is development does work."
Trading partners
He pointed to Vietnam as an example of a developing country that has emerged as a key trade partner for Ireland.
"Vietnam is an Irish development partner, but it's now more or less an equal trading partner, development investment has worked to improve people's lives while also creating an economic and politcal partner."
While there are always opponents to foreign aid, including some of Richmond's Dáil colleagues, he pointed to polls which show Irish people are generally in favour of it.
"It's an argument that 20 years ago we didn't have to make as loudly, but we have to be very clear, and you can see some of the commentary in the Dáil that somehow [people] think if we cut our ODA budget it would solve our domestic ills.
"Let's be quite frank, our annual ODA budget is worth about three months of fuel subsidies.
"There is a cohort in society who will always oppose aid. Social media platforms mean the most simple and often incorrect arguments are amplified."
He continued: "The last opinion poll showed 70 per cent of Irish people support ODA. As a career politican if I could get a 70 per cent approval rating for anything I'd be pretty happy. It's that loud 10 - 12 per cent who oppose it.
"We were helped for so long not just through the EU, but Marshall support from the United States, we relied on remittances sent home from emigrants, we have that responsibility now because that's how you create a safer world and how you address very real issues.
"I went to Uganda this year, I had been there in 2016. The difference in terms of life expectancy rates, standard of living, the amount of girls in school, it was mind blowing."
