Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I will outline the scope of Ireland's current aid programme and examine some of the evolving trends in overseas development and how the measures outlined in the White Paper and programme for Government are embraced and facilitated in this regard.

It is useful to begin by putting Ireland's overseas aid budget in perspective in terms of its size and historical growth rate and by comparing it with that of other nations. Ireland's total aid budget has increased from €22 million in 1981 to €815 million in 2007. The goal is to double this to reach a target of €1.5 billion, or 0.7% of gross national income, ahead of the EU target date of 2015. In real terms, this means that between 2007 and 2012, Ireland could spend as much as €6 billion on overseas aid. The OECD has ranked Ireland sixth in the world in terms of overseas development per capita. The United States is only ranked 20th of 22 in this regard.

Ireland channels over half its overseas development aid to the least-developed countries and this is the largest share channelled thus by the members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee. Unlike many European countries, Ireland does not tie its aid to trade. Irish Aid works in partnership with countries without the expectation of return and it is this type of principle that ensures Ireland's foreign policy is respected throughout the world. Therefore, by any reasonable benchmark, our scale and rate of contribution are remarkable and our targets are ambitious.

The quantity and geographical distribution of projects to which our aid is applied are impressive and their range and diversity are well known. Ireland's overseas assistance currently takes a wide sweep of forms, including direct long-term development programs in eight partner countries in Africa and Asia, which programmes address infrastructure, health care and education; funding of private NGOs and Irish missionaries' work in over 90 countries; sponsoring HIV prevention programs, through the Clinton Foundation, in Brazil and throughout Africa; post-graduate scholarship programs in Irish universities for foreign students; assistance in setting up government institutions in post-conflict environments such as Bosnia; and our Fairtrade initiative, an example of which is evident in this Parliament's restaurant.

These are just some of the numerous areas to which Irish overseas aid is directed. The results, as outlined by the Minister of State, are for all to see. In Mozambique, we have set up 83 HIV-AIDS counselling and testing centres and over 250,000 people have availed of their services since 2004. In Northern Province, Zambia, a programme of well and borehole building has been completed and fresh water is now provided to over 113,000 people. In the past ten years, 75 minefields have been cleared in Mozambique with the help of the HALO Trust. Irish Aid supports the health sector in Uganda in making a real difference in the delivery of primary care. The immunisation rate for childhood diseases is now at 89% for the entire country and over 78% of Ugandans are within 5 km of health care centres. In Lesotho, to which Ireland is the largest donor, since 1990 there has been a 32% reduction in the mortality rate of children under five years. Enrolment in primary schools has increased from 57% in 1999 to more than 82%. The Government White Paper outlined by the Minister of State includes a rapid reaction initiative, a hunger task force led by Joe Walsh and a schools linking and immersion scheme which will help Irish schools to get in contact with their counterparts in the developing world to help increase mutual understanding.

The governance unit is also part of Irish Aid's work. It will oversee our work in helping to create better and more accountable governments, reduce corruption and ensure our money gets to where it is most needed. The unit for conflict resolution in the Department of Foreign Affairs will draw on our own sad historic past, including previous conflicts in the North, and will use these efforts in helping other countries in similar situations.

The nature of overseas aid has changed dramatically in recent years in terms of its goals, the form it takes and how it is channelled. The result has been a move towards creating a culture of independence as opposed to a culture of dependence, as was often the case with overseas aid. Ireland's direct long-term development programmes in partner countries are an example of how we provide countries with the infrastructure, tools and expertise to enable them to progress rather than just provide charity. This strategy creates sustainable improvements in the lives of ordinary people through building systems to address the causes of poverty rather than simply ameliorating the symptoms.The governments and peoples of our partner countries are primarily responsible for their own development and will lead the development process. However for their part, our partner countries must work to combat corruption, ensure effective and responsible government, promote democracy and protect human rights.

More aid now comes from the private sector internationally through private individuals, corporations, non-governmental organisations and voluntary groups as opposed to the public sector which was traditionally the major source. Increasingly it is being recognised that governments can only do so much and a significant impact is being made by ordinary citizens working individually, by corporations and by non-governmental organisations. A key facet of this trend has been the emergence of privately funded foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and those established by Warren Buffett and Bill Clinton. This trend has resulted in increased innovation in terms of how funds are applied and the form that aid takes. This harnessing of market forces to fight poverty, or "creative capitalism" as it is termed by Bill Gates, has an increasing future role in overseas development aid. However, a significant impact is also being made by the private individual or active citizens.

The success and impact of contributions from the private sector through the initiative of private individuals has been amply demonstrated in this country by the effectiveness of projects such as the Niall Mellon Township Trust whereby more than 100 Irish people participated in the building of houses in South Africa in recent weeks, and the Alan Kerins African Projects which will be familiar to many Members from his appearance before the Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Development Co-operation on 22 June 2005 organised by Deputy Michael D. Higgins.

While completing a three-month voluntary placement with Sr. Cathy Crawford, an Irish missionary who runs the Cheshire home for physically disabled children in a province in western Zambia that is two and a half times the size of Ireland, Alan Kerins was moved to do something by the plight of locals who were facing a famine due to 75% crop failure brought on by the worst drought for nearly 100 years. He raised €11,000 for immediate aid to alleviate the food shortages caused by crop failure. His actions helped save the lives of 800 families, saving more than 4,000 people from certain death far from the glare of world media. Using his profile as an inter-county hurler and his experiences in Africa as leverage, he subsequently organised a foundation which, among other activities, has raised funds to bore wells to help with irrigation for the villages in western Zambia to ensure a culture of independence is created and future famine is averted.

The establishment of the Irish Aid Information and Volunteer Centre, a key innovation outlined in the White Paper, will make more and better information available to the public about all aspects of volunteering opportunities for individuals, institutions and communities. It is hoped that 50,000 people a year will visit the centre on O'Connell Street. This measure will help to promote, inspire and encourage more volunteerism and active citizenship by ordinary individuals, resulting in more success stories such as the Alan Kerins and Niall Mellon projects. I believe there exists the potential for significant synergistic overlap between the Government's active citizenship program and its overseas development programme. These types of projects have demonstrated the power of ordinary people to have an extraordinary impact on the lives of others because in the words of Martin Luther King:"Everyone can be great because everyone can serve."

Another innovation, which was mentioned earlier, is the conflict resolution centre. An example of this innovation in action was a meeting between parties involved in the Northern Ireland conflict and members of various Iraqi factions which was held in Helsinki. The meeting was chaired by Martin McGuinness who was able to share the experience of the parties in Northern Ireland in coming to a peaceful agreement.

The Government White Paper is an ambitious blueprint and programme in a world where 4 billion people live on less than $2 per day, 35,000 children a day die of preventable diseases and 20,000 die of hunger or hunger-related causes. Overseas aid continues to present one of the principal, constantly evolving and difficult challenges facing the governments of developed nations today. We must strive not only to reach our goals in terms of increasing the amount of overseas aid but also to ensure that aid is directed correctly to achieve maximum effect. The further strengthening of Irish Aid, as outlined in the White Paper, should help to ensure this objective is achieved. We have a strong obligation to the citizens of this country to do so, but we have a stronger obligation to the people of the developing world and our fellow citizens of the world to achieve the goals we have set.