Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the members of the delegation. They have arrived in a rainy Dublin, but when I visited Maputo a number of months ago it was also raining, so they are used to that.

I would like to acknowledge the work of Irish ambassador, Mr. Ruairi de Burca, and his staff in the Irish embassy. They have been effective in establishing and maintaining positive relationships between Ireland and Mozambique.

I chair the Irish section of AWEPA, which is an organisation comprising African and European parliamentarians. In that capacity I received funding from Irish Aid for a project to monitor parliamentary oversight of aid and I welcomed parliamentarians from Mozambique to a conference in Dublin last June which was opened by the President of Ireland. In turn, I visited Mozambique a number of months ago and met Mr. Eneas Comiche, who is the chairman of the planning and budget committee of the Mozambican Parliament. We had lengthy, frank and good meetings in the parliament with him and other parliamentarians. We discussed budgets and financing. Ireland gives general budget support. Should that be targeted at particular areas, including, for example, support for the planning and budget committee? We were taken by the fact that budget committee members travel throughout Mozambique when preparing their budget submission, which is a novel development.

Like many African countries, Mozambique has significant natural resources. The developed world has been responsible for depriving countries such as Mozambique of all their natural assets and wealth. How strong is the will of the Government and Parliament to prevent illicit capital flight and to ensure there is no corporate tax avoidance? Even though the corporation tax rate is 35%, one multinational company paid less than 0.5% of its pre-tax profits to the country. Mozambique was, therefore, deprived of significant wealth and resources that it needs.

With regard to parliamentary oversight, there is a need for a strong opposition in Parliament, and it is good that Renamo and the MDM party are in Parliament. How strong is the opposition? It is through parliamentary debate that we enhance democracy.

To come back to the budget, the other question concerns the Mozambican Parliament and its committees calling in multinational companies to address these issues and answer directly to Parliament. This is to ensure they pay their just taxes within the country in order that any tax concession or tax break has a very limited timeframe and does not go on forever such that the benefit is to the multinational company, not the country.

With regard to education, we visited a technical school and saw the potential of skills-based, craft-based and trade-based education. Are there many developments in this regard? In addition, is there access to further education for children from poorer areas?

Will the delegates outline Mozambique's role within the African Union in dealing with conflicts, for example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic?