Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I congratulate the Green Party for putting forward this composite motion, spelling out clearly the deficiencies in what we are doing for our poorer brethren of the world. We must have a conscience about this matter because Ireland was a country where entire families were wiped out by TB and it was ravaged by famine and emigration through which so much of our population was decimated. These days, few people die of TB and malaria in the developed world. However, for the developing countries this is a different story where they are the largest killers. These are conditions about which something can be done.

In the past in Ireland, TB was related to poor living conditions, basic sanitation and housing. This is the prevalent situation in the Third World. Knowing about it gives us a responsibility to tackle the issue. While some efforts are made, much more could be done. Targets have been set and every speaker has outlined the need to reach the 0.7% of GNP target to be devoted to overseas development aid by 2007. However, this commitment was broken. It is an indictment of where we stand as a country and a society. It behoves us to get on the right track with our responsibility to developing countries.

AIDS is not just a health problem but a massive threat to the entire global community. Some 7,000 people die of AIDS and over 40,000 are being infected with HIV every day. These are major figures and 95% of these people are from developing countries. This tells the entire story. There are entire communities of AIDS orphans. These situations arise because their parents infected with HIV have not had the basic drugs to ensure a longer life. Speaking of longer life, an examination of the life expectancies in developing countries is telling. If we had the life expectancies of these countries, very few, if any Members would be here. For instance, life expectancy at birth in Mozambique is 41 compared with 77 in Ireland. Infant mortality at birth in Mozambique is 137 per 1,000. One can go through a list of other countries such as Lesotho where life expectancy is 35 and Zambia, where it is 32. These figures tell their own story. I wonder what we can do about them.

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