Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a gabháil ar son an Chomhaontais Ghlais leis na Teachtaí Neamhspleácha agus leis na páirtithe go léir a thugann tacaíocht don rún. Listening to the strong criticism of the Government from Deputy O'Donnell, I expect the Progressive Democrats will also support the motion.

I thank the individual NGOs, many of which are here in the Visitors Gallery, church groups and people who have influence, who are making a difference and working to make poverty history. It is welcome that the Government is prepared to come part of the way along the road to supporting our motion, but it is very disappointing that it is not prepared to support the motion in its entirety. Instead, the Government has amputated the bulk of our motion and for the sake of showing superiority of numbers, is forcing a vote on a watered down amendment.

This motion is a call to action. It is a call to action for justice, upon which the Green Party would act if in Government. This Government has demonstrated willingness to respond when called upon by another country. After 11 September 2001, when thousands died as a result of two planes smashing into the twin towers in New York, another plane smashing into the Pentagon and another crashing in Pennsylvania, all at the hands of hijackers, the Government unquestioningly acceded to the wishes of the US Government for an increase in refuelling and overflights of high-tech killing machines. If four airplanes crash causing less than four thousand deaths in one day, bringing about so much focus, prayers and even a toleration and complicit co-operation with an illegal and bloody invasion of Iraq, what would be the response of the Government if an equivalent of 300 jumbo jets crashed every day? The equivalent of 300 jumbo jets crashing every day is 40 million people per annum, which is the estimated total who die from hunger and hunger related diseases, as well as AIDS. Half of the passengers on these virtual airplanes are children. If the Dáil was to respond to world hunger and poverty in anything like the way it responded to the attacks on 11 September 2001, we would work on this issue every day of every week until avoidable hunger and disease was ended.

Our motion sets out a template for this work, including debt cancellation, trade justice, restricting the arms trade, climate change and — the Minister of State does not need reminding — the commitment to increase overseas development aid to 0.7% of GNP by 2007, as was promised. Debt cancellation requires cutting a deal with the debt holders. For the Government, this is the biggest peace process of all. I ask the Taoiseach to bring it on. As someone who claims to be a negotiator, let us see how serious he is when it comes to dealing with world poverty.

Trade justice is denied to most post-colonial poor countries. The world trading system is corrupt and unjust and free trade is compounding these problems. It is time to change the rules. For example, 25 million coffee producers face ruin as the price of coffee has fallen 50% in the past three years. Farmers are selling at heavy losses. Vietnamese farmers get only 60% of production costs. Is it any wonder desperate farmers turn to producing heroin and cocaine and exporting misery to the west? The west created that misery for those farmers in the first place by impoverishing them. In the poorest 48 countries, three products — tea, sugar and copper — constitute 75% of all trade. Between 1997 and 2001, the price index of each fell by more than 50%.

As a start, let the Government state that it will do what it must do to levy the Tobin tax on international financial transactions. Ireland has a role to stress that famine is not an option and that selling arms to the poor is not an option. That goes for Shannon Airport as much as the comfortable suggestion of taxing the arms trade, which will hardly affect Ireland. By an accident of history and the work of people like Frank Aiken, Seán McBride, Mary Robinson, John O'Shea and Bob Geldof, Bono and others, Ireland has some moral authority to set the agenda. Does the Government have the courage to say that we must live more simply so that others can simply live? This month, the Royal Society of Scientists in the UK, along with the authors of the report, Africa — Up in Smoke, warned the G8 leaders that unless deeper cuts in emissions of CO2 gases take place and unless funding goes to environmental regeneration such as re-afforestation, we will not see an end to poverty.

Does the Government have any residual integrity left to keep its word? The wrist bands that many of us are wearing remind the Minister of State to keep his word. The commitment to increase overseas development aid to 0.7% of GNP by 2007 is the promise that has been broken. Before travelling to New York for the UN millennium summit in September, we ask that the Minister of State and the Taoiseach bring this House back from the recess to state clearly the date for the implementation of that promise. They could at least restore some of the lost integrity and trust that has damaged this Government irreparably.

The poor have given the rich cheap tea, cheap coffee, raw materials and oil over the years. In turn, we ask the Government to support the motion in the spirit of consensus building to create international solidarity between the Irish people and the poor. It is only with leadership from countries like Ireland as a post-colonial nation that poverty will be made history. I ask Members, please, to support the motion.

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