Mattie McGrath criticises WHO funding, urges Middle East debate
Mattie McGrath criticised rising funding for the World Health Organization and urged parliamentary debate on violence and persecution in the Middle East. He expressed concern that increased contributions risk being seen as buying influence at the United Nations and called for more scrutiny of international bodies.
Thanks and constituency issues
He thanked the Minister of State and the minister's office for assistance during the early COVID crisis and with ongoing constituency cases, citing an example of a woman needing to travel abroad for a family funeral. He referenced 'vote 27 and 28' and noted he had limited time in the debate.
Concerns over WHO funding
McGrath said this was the sixth year of increased funding and voiced "a lot of concerns about the WHO", pointing to "huge increases" to the World Health Organization. He questioned whether holding a place on the Security Council was costing credibility, asking if the State was "buying the support of these people".
Middle East and persecution
He raised alarm about the "slaughter" and persecution of Christians and some minority Muslim groups in the Middle East and criticised the lack of parliamentary debate on those events. He referenced a remark by Deputy Collins about Yemen and said that when it suits the State, it turns a blind eye to such crises.
All lives matter stance and criticism of international bodies
McGrath affirmed that "all lives matter to me, unborn, and born, and from the womb to the tomb" and compared public demonstrations to perceived inaction by global institutions. He criticised both the World Health Organization and the United Nations for turning a blind eye and described that approach as "clearly not acceptable".
Calls for debate and foreign affairs oversight
He urged the minister to maintain his position in foreign affairs and pressed for debates and greater scrutiny of international funding decisions and the State's response to human rights abuses abroad.
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Thank you very much, I wish you well indeed your Minister of State also, and indeed I want to thank your office and yourself for the help and assistance with different issues, many of them during the COVID early times of crisis, and I know we still have issues ongoing, your office is working on it at the moment, it's a tragedy where a lady needs to go to her family funeral abroad, look, vote 27 and 28, I don't have a much time, but Minister, I see what is the sixth year of our increase of funding, but I have concerns about the increase in funding to the WHO, we have huge increases to them also, and I have a lot of concerns about the WHO, and I want to also acknowledge the works of our visionaries and our missionaries over the centuries literally, and what they've done abroad, and to support them, and I see now a lot of the, you know, we have a place in the Security Council, but is that costing us, we're buying our way, are we buying the support of these people, are we recognised as the true independent and, you know, neutral country that we should be, Minister, I also have huge concerns about the Middle East, and the slaughter that's going on there, of the persecution of Christians, and some Muslim sects also, minority Muslim groups, and we're not saying one tittle about it, I don't have no debates in our parliament about it either, so we have rumpus about every different thing, we had it recently, and rightly so, all lives matter to me, and we had all the demonstrations with black lives matter, all lives matter to me, unborn, and born, and from the womb to the tomb, but the slaughter in the Middle East is going on, and we're not your aunt about it, Minister, and you are, maintain your position in foreign affairs, we need to have debates around those issues, Deputy Collins mentioned about what's happening in Yemen, it's happened in other places as well, so, when it suits us to turn the blind eye, and it suits us to double, the double, the World Health Organization, turn blind eyes as well, they do, and the United Nations, and it's not, it's clearly not acceptable, gore ma'i gore.
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