Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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The development bank would deal largely with development projects but we are not engaged in that work in Asia. We are engaged in trade with Asia. I do not see the importance of it vis-à-vis what we do in Africa. The budget for ODA is €640 million. The lion’s share of that - excuse the pun - is spent in Africa, yet we are not able to engage with the various projects the African Development Bank wants us to engage in and in which it has asked us to engage. I raised this when I was Minister of State. That we are having initial discussions now seems like lip service and there is no real, serious intent, yet we could be doing business there, acquiring projects and developing a base we do not have now. We would be developing it in an area where there is much goodwill towards Ireland and which wants Ireland to get the contracts.