Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

Ba mhaith liom comhgairdeachas a ghabháil leis an Tánaiste agus leis na hAirí Stáit, na Teachtaí Jan O'Sullivan agus Lucinda Creighton, as ucht a gceapacháin. Tá mé ag súil le bheith ag comh-oibriú leo go héifeachtach san am atá romhainn.

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. She has my full support and the full support of the Fianna Fáil Party in doing everything she can to maintain Ireland's overseas aid programme, against the background of our own extremely difficult budgetary situation. I readily acknowledge the scale of the challenge that confronts herself and the Minister in that regard. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle had the privilege of serving effectively in this area for a number of years, when the State was in a position to be more flaithiúlach than we are at present, regrettably.

It is significant that we are considering this issue in the week when the Trócaire Lenten campaign nears an end, with its focus this year on development projects in Honduras. Last year, this single campaign raised almost €11 million, which is a huge achievement. Will the Minister of State join me in commending the outstanding input of Irish non-governmental agencies to the development aid process through their individual fund-raising efforts.

Forecasts for economic growth have been revised downward by the Central Bank to 0.9% growth in GDP this year and to 2.2% growth in GDP in 2012. Can the Minister of State clarify if this is significantly lower than the growth predictions on which the Irish Aid commitment in the programme for Government was based?

The programme for Government states that we will review the 2006 White Paper on overseas development aid. Can the Minister of State elaborate on what is intended in that review?

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