Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raised the issue of the overseas aid budget with the Minister of State when he was in the Seanad previously. The annual report indicates that €206 million is provided in multilateral aid, including €128 million for EU development co-operation. Of the latter amount, €109 million in taxpayers' money, or money we borrowed from the EU itself, is being given back to EU institutions. The report gives a breakdown of every cent provided in bilateral funding, including €3,000 for a group in Sligo. Can we get the same level of detail on how the EU spends its money? We have given €18 million to the World Bank. I am not sure if that is money we have already borrowed from the World Bank. Will we get credit on the interest we are paying? Given the size of our contributions in multilateral aid, I am concerned that the money is getting tied up in institutions and bureaucracies rather than reaching the ground.

This committee is occasionally asked to approve five-year rolling funds for EU programmes, involving sums of money that can amount to millions of euro. Ireland has committed to making a proportionate contribution to the EU budget and, as our funding for overseas shrinks, our commitment to the EU stays at the same percentage. The amount of money provided to the headline bilateral programmes with partner countries must shrink because of our commitments to EU institutions.

I join Deputy Crowe in asking the Minister of State to explain how we select or deselect partner countries. Our involvement with Sierra Leone started through a great initiative by an Irish citizen and Dublin Bus employee who pushed the Government to do the right thing for a country with which we had no strategic or economic interest. Few countries in Europe would do the right thing for a country located so far away. We have since started a partnership with another country that clearly needs our assistance.