Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am mesmerised by the quality of the work our guests are doing. If I had known about the centre for global development at University College Cork when my daughter decided to do her primary degree there, I would not have been as sad about her leaving if I had known that she would be receiving an education of this quality. Her primary degree was in food science and she has now moved on to look after children at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

This is an absolutely fascinating subject. Some members, including the Chairman, have just returned from the conferences on hunger, nutrition and climate justice which was sponsored by Mary Robinson and the Government. We interacted with everyone including people from the Masai to pastoralists to people from tiny villages in Nepal to individuals from Niger. It was a fascinating event. I congratulate University College Cork, in the first instance, and I also wish to congratulate Irish Aid. I was not aware of the latter's centre or of the fact that it is working so diligently, professionally and in such an advanced manner behind the scenes in order to encourage the university to engage in so many of these programmes.

The Chairman and other members have visited some of the Irish Aid programmes in Sierra Leone. I refer, in particular, to the programme based on the concept of improving nutrition in the first 1,000 days from conception to the age of two. We also witnessed the work taking place on the feeding programmes. The conditions in which people in Sierra Leone live are terribly poor. Hygiene is sadly lacking and there are huge numbers of young children. In the context of what was discussed at the conference sponsored by Mary Robinson and the Government, how is duplication in the provision of development services dealt with? We are all aware of the development studies centre at Kimmage Manor. I do not know how many missionary agencies in this country run such facilities. Does duplication occur in the context of educating people in this area?

Professor Fitzpatrick referred to the Africa strategy. The committee was very impressed by that strategy when it came before us for discussion. Did our guests contribute to the strategy? Do they follow its development?

Deputy Mitchell referred to stunted growth. As our guests are aware, the conference to which I refer dealt with the role of women, mainly in Africa but also in Mongolia and Nepal. Apparently, many of the farmers in the various countries in these regions are women. They need to be sustained by means of improving the quality of their land from the point of view of food production. I presume our guests are expert in advising Irish Aid on or in operating in conjunction with it in respect of upgrading the quality land from the point of view of production. A very strong message was put across at the conference to the effect that there is a need to listen to people. It is clear that our guests listen to and educate those people.

The millennium development goals are under review and they expire in 2015. Will our guests indicate whether they play a role with regard to lobbying politicians or is Irish Aid already pushing them towards influencing the type of development goals that will be put in place after 2015?