Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Last year there were three major summits on the issue of development. There was the summit in Addis Ababa which looked at how development was financed. In September in New York we saw the biggest problems in respect of poverty being addressed. In December in Paris the Conference of Parties talks led to a successful agreement. I imagine we all agree that there has been some progress in the past year, which is positive. The vision of Dóchas for the year was to be able to change the way people thought about global issues and how we dealt with them.

I have carried out surveys of development aid and learned that people often believe we spend far more money than we actually do. I carried out some surveys in my constituency of Meath East some time ago in which people were asked how much money Ireland gave in development aid. They responded by saying approximately 50 cent of every €10 was spent, but in reality less than five cent of every tenner is spent. There is a real demand for additional information. A considerable amount of good work is done throughout the country to improve people's knowledge. In the north east organisations such as Development Perspectives work closely with local people to try to improve their knowledge of how much we give in development aid and how it benefits the developing world. That is welcome, but we need to see more of these organisational networks.