Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to speak on this motion. I compliment the members of the Green Party on tabling it. As I said to Deputy Eamon Ryan earlier, it is very much an omnibus motion but it gives us the opportunity to focus on key issues. Like Deputy O'Donnell, I too am a member of the foreign affairs committee and I too was one of those people who agreed, on a cross-party basis, to support our commitment to reach the 0.7% target by 2007. I am disappointed and take no pride in having to stand up here and say we have not achieved it. I am not critical of the Minister of State with responsibility for overseas development, Deputy Connor Lenihan, who is doing a fine job, or of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. It was a solemn commitment entered into for very good reasons. We should, in so far as we possibly can, honour that commitment at the earliest possible date. I am well aware of what commitments have been entered into at EU level but we can do better than that. I recognise that we are being lectured by the great and the good but we take our responsibilities seriously.

I have been in various locations with Members of this House. I was at the UNCTAD Conference in Sao Paulo — information on which I found among my papers this afternoon — with the Minister of State, Deputy Kitt, the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, and others around this time last year where the issues of trade and development were addressed. I listened to people like President Museveni of Uganda talk about his vision for Uganda and Africa. I did not agree with everything he said but he set out his stall in a coherent and strong manner.

I have seen the work Development Co-Operation Ireland has done in Uganda, the work done on HIV-AIDS projects, the co-operation among Trinity College, St. James's Hospital and projects in Kampala and work on the malaria projects. I recognise the success of these projects in reducing child mortality. I saw projects on education, HIV-AIDS and health. I recall it being an emotional occasion when I saw hundreds of children walk down a mountainside in the Tigre area of Ethiopia last September on their way to school to sit, in the case of one school, in a class of 102 students but they would not have been going to school were it not for the support of Irish taxpayers, Development Co-operation Ireland and this Government. The fact that we have been able to contribute towards the training of their teachers and the development of their curriculum has made a great difference in Ethiopia.

During the course of my visit there I met a disparate and disjointed group of opposition politicians who were reluctant to meet us because there were afraid. However, I was pleased to see how well the opposition did in the recent elections in Ethiopia. I am concerned about the fallout, the oppression and the killing that has taken place. I have made the point to the Ethiopian authorities that our support of Ethiopia is not unconditional, but our support involves support for good governance. One point we made clear to President Museveni last year was that we support the emergence of a strong opposition as well as a strong government party there. Developing countries must realise that there is a price to pay for agreeing to be supported by countries like Ireland. They must have a vibrant, critical opposition and a critical media.

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