Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity to present the 2014 Revised Estimate for Vote 27, international co-operation. I will briefly outline our plans for 2014. Vote 27 covers the main elements of the Government’s international development assistance programme, commonly known as Irish Aid. The Vote provides the funding necessary to achieve the second of the Department’s high level goals, namely, to contribute to the reduction of global poverty and hunger, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

For 2014, the Government has provided almost €600 million for official development assistance, ODA, of which €479 million will be administered under Vote 27 and the remaining €120 million through contributions to international development by other Departments and Ireland’s share of the EU development co-operation budget. The 2014 ODA allocation represents a further significant contribution by Ireland to international development. Over the past several years, and despite the very challenging economic circumstances facing our country, the Government has largely managed to protect and stabilise the ODA budget. We are proud of this major achievement, which is a firm indication of our commitment, and indeed that of the Irish people, to the aid programme.

The Government is committed to increasing our aid spend, measured as a percentage of gross national income, GNI, when economic circumstances allow. In 2014 it is expected to be approximately 0.43%. Our development co-operation programme is guided by our policy on international development launched last year, One World One Future. Our focus will be on the three goals of hunger reduction, sustainable growth and good governance across six priority areas for action, namely global hunger, fragile states, climate change, economic growth, essential services, and human rights and accountability. This programme will continue to save lives and build a decent future for some of the world's poorest people.

During the first half of this year, we will undergo a searching peer review of our aid programme by the OECD. This arises approximately every five years and provides a valuable international, independent assessment of our performance against established international best practice. It also serves as a mechanism of public accountability and institutional learning. Ensuring a successful outcome of the peer review is a key objective for the Department for 2014. On the last occasion in 2009, the OECD concluded that Ireland was a champion of international development co-operation globally. Other priority areas for 2014 include: reviewing our engagement with multilateral organisations to ensure that their priorities are aligned with ours; enhancing our economic links with African countries, particularly our key partner countries; and continuing to strengthen our systems across the programme to further improve management, accountability and transparency.

Ireland’s aid programme has often been praised by this committee, and deservedly so. Development co-operation is at the heart of Ireland’s foreign policy. Our key objective for 2014 is to continue delivering a world class programme, aimed at some of the world’s most vulnerable and marginalised people, helping to save lives and build livelihoods. We appreciate the continued strong support and engagement of the committee in this regard. I would welcome comments and questions from committee members.