Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

The allocation for 2005 provides for an increase of €70 million in Government spending on official development assistance this year. This will bring total Government aid to the developing world to approximately €545 million in 2005. This is the highest allocation in the 30-year history of our overseas aid programme. In addition, the Government has agreed to provide further increases of €65 million in each of the years 2006 and 2007. These substantial increases mean that over the three years from 2005 to 2007, €1.8 billion will be spent by Ireland on development assistance. As a result, Ireland will maintain its position as one of the world's leading aid donors on a per capita basis. In addition, this three-year multi-annual commitment, incorporating substantial annual increases, gives my Department a sound basis to carry forward the long-term planning which is so important for development work.

Ireland has successfully focused its aid programme on the needs of the poorest people in the poorest countries. Ireland is one of only six countries to have surpassed the target, endorsed by the UN, of contributing at least 0.15% of gross national product in overseas development assistance to the world's least developed countries. The Government remains strongly committed to achieving the UN target for expenditure on ODA. The issue of how best to meet the target and in what timeframe is under ongoing review.

Under the Government's decentralisation programme, announced in December 2003, the development co-operation directorate of the Department of Foreign Affairs, currently based in Dublin, is scheduled to be decentralised to Limerick. This will involve the relocation to Limerick of 123 posts and is scheduled to take place during the first quarter of 2007. Details of applications received for the posts in question, excluding applications from civil servants already serving in Limerick, are set out in the table accompanying this reply.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The Department is working closely with the Office of Public Works to identify suitable accommodation for the directorate in Limerick and it is hoped to select a premises in the near future. Pending this, it is not possible to estimate savings or additional costs.

The various issues arising from the Government decision, both for the Department in general and for the development co-operation directorate, in particular, are considered in the Department's decentralisation implementation plan. Risk analysis carried out by the directorate in this context has identified the following as the main risk factors, and for which appropriate risk mitigation strategies are being implemented: financial, including accountability and control; human resources, including loss of expertise and institutional memory; communications between the directorate and internal and external stakeholders; and associated operational and reputational risks. The implementation plan, which has been published on the Department's website www.dfa.ie, was recently revised to take account of the decision to include the directorate among the early movers.

I am making available the following table detailing applications via the central applications facility for DCD posts in Limerick.

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