Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and members for their questions, which strongly probe the genesis and nature of the European Development Fund. Deputy Brendan Smith asked about the genesis of the fund and a number of other speakers also referred to the issue. He noted the role of the European Commission, through the development Commissioner, and the involvement of each member state on the committee that disburses funds. The European Parliament is not directly involved in disbursement decisions, although it is made aware of them. It is also part of the process of accountability in that it will sign off on the accounts at the end of the process.

It should be recalled that the European Development Fund operates outside the normal European Union funding arrangements for development, including European neighbourhood funds and other instruments. The European Development Fund was negotiated in 1957 as part of the negotiations to establish the European Economic Community. It originated in the countries which had colonies in Africa and the Caribbean and Pacific regions and wanted a development fund. There was, however, little interest in the issue in countries other than the relevant colonies. A compromise was reached under which an assessed fund would be established to which all member states would contribute. The new mechanism would remain outside the standard European Union instruments. From that point of view, the European Development Fund does not come within the remit of the European Parliament, although the position will change when the Cotonou Agreement expires in 2020 and the entire process becomes subject to the Community method.

The current position is that the European Development Fund is a separate fund outside the normal instruments of the European Union. This is relevant because, following the Lisbon treaty, we would all like to maximise the role played by the European Parliament. The treaty envisaged that the Parliament would be given co-decision making powers. This matter will be addressed following the expiration of the Cotonou agreement and after the six years of the 2014-20 allocation.

The Chairman asked about collaboration between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and IBEC. The Department initiated this collaboration recently because I was interested in exploring the possibility of accessing the substantial number of infrastructure tenders that are available throughout the world. Tenders offered by bodies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank and European Development Fund release substantial amounts of money for infrastructure projects for development purposes in the areas of sanitation, roads, energy and so forth. On the basis that Ireland was not a strong player in this area, the Department linked up with IBEC and commissioned a report, Winning Business in Africa, which I launched last year. The report identifies €10 billion that is accessible to Irish companies through tenders and makes recommendations as to how this procurement could be pursued. It proposes, for example, that smaller Irish companies come together in clusters to meet the threshold required to compete. We subsequently established a pilot project to see how this would work.

We have, therefore, closely examined ways in which Irish companies can access business. It is interesting to note that prior to the Celtic tiger, Irish companies engaged in external tendering of this nature to a much greater extent. It appears that during the Celtic tiger, we became more narcissistic and inward-looking and looked abroad to a much lesser extent than previously. Many companies have started to look outwards again in the hope of re-opening sectors in which they may have engaged previously. The same holds for ESB International, a State-owned multinational company that is beginning to garner a large number of contracts in areas in which it worked previously. There is now collaboration in this area between the Department and IBEC as we seek to provide the right environment and mechanisms to enable Irish companies to tender for relevant contracts. Size was probably the greatest issue in this regard.

Countries such as China have their own agenda and I do not wish to engage in a discussion of the issue. I will visit Africa in the week after next to sign a contract between the Government of Botswana and ESB International for the provision of the country's entire energy production. ESB International has taken over these contracts from Chinese companies which were unable to fulfil them. This is an indication of the quality of Irish engineering, particularly in the energy area. An Irish State company will be responsible for the entire energy production of Botswana.