Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join with colleagues in welcoming the visitors this morning and I thank them for their briefing ahead of the July UN conference on financing and development. It is encouraging to hear that the Irish aid programme is one of the best in the world. It is 100% untied, and despite our difficult economic situation in the past number of years, we have managed to maintain the level at approximately €600 million per annum. All of us in this room support the various goals and objectives described by the witnesses this morning. It is critical that our Government recommits to the 0.7% target by 2020 and that we maintain our objective to keep the aid untied and target it towards poverty eradication. As Deputy O'Sullivan said, it is disappointing that the millennium development goals have not delivered to a much greater extent, and much greater effort and commitment will be required to ensure the sustainable development goals are delivered on.

Nobody referred to the fact that much of the failure to deliver as much as had been hoped for may be attributable to political instability in many of the African countries about which we are talking. Will we not be fighting a losing battle until efforts are made to address the real issues in the region? These issues are war, conflict, political instability, corruption and human rights abuses, and much of the resources of those countries are spent on armaments, which causes huge poverty in the various regions of Africa.

How would the UN-led mechanism for resolving debt crises work? Is there any support for a UN tax body within the EU and other countries? Do the witnesses envisage that a review of the working of various organisations such as the UN and the World Bank will be a central plank of future developments?