Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. With the permission of the House, I wish to share time with Deputy O'Connor.

I wish to begin by commenting on the vote for the Department of Foreign Affairs. It is probable that not many people will refer to it but I am very please that we will see record expenditure on official development assistance in 2006. The allocation this year puts us firmly on the road to reaching the 0.5% interim target that the Government set for 2007 spending. We are well on our way to meeting the UN target of spending 0.7% of gross national product on aid by 2012, with an interim target of 0.6% in 2010. It is well realised that the Irish people are extremely generous in their support for official development assistance.

The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, of which I have the honour of being a member, has worked very hard to ensure an all-party consensus on the issue of overseas development assistance. I know that the contribution the committee made fed into the contribution which the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs have made at the UN and at other forums.

I welcome the contribution this year of €12 million to support our emigrants. That is spent substantially on frontline services and emigrant organisations that do extremely valuable work with emigrants who left Ireland in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, many of whom are in their older years now and have enormous personal problems. I pay tribute to organisations such as DION and the Federation of Irish Societies, which I met in my capacity as co-chairman of the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body, and I look forward to hearing from them again at the plenary session of the body next week in Edinburgh.

I compliment the Minister for Foreign Affairs on pursuing the idea of setting up a volunteer corps. Such a corps, similar to the peace corps in the United States, will provide a very useful avenue for young professionals and those not yet trained to contribute to development projects in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. Lest I be accused of being ungrateful, I also thank the Minister for Foreign Affairs in my capacity as vice chairman of the European Movement — members will be aware that Deputy Quinn is the chairman — for the very significant increase in grant aid to the movement. It will enable the organisation to engage in wide-ranging awareness programmes within civil society over the next few years, especially during the so-called period of reflection leading to the next stage of the debate on the European constitution.

On the education sector, my own pet area, record increases have been announced for 2006 with €570 million extra for the Department this year, bringing the total spend to €7.2 billion. I am pleased that the commitment in the programme for Government to reducing the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools will be adhered to with a reduction of one point in the coming academic year and further point in the following year.

Fourth level education, which is research and development, needs particular assistance. Ireland has traditionally been weak in that area but we are now finding our feet and I am pleased a figure for that purpose is embedded in the Book of Estimates. I hope further allocations will follow at a later stage.

By child care we mean early childhood care and education. Much investment has been made in child care and early education but it is not possible to roll out a whole new sector of education in one or even two years so it should not be promised. I was a member of the National Economic and Social Council working group, with Deputies English and Penrose from the Opposition benches, which recommended that the whole sector be rolled out over a ten-year period with a five-year review ranging across parental leave, maternity leave, tax breaks, addressing the supply side and providing early education. I look forward to the Government building on a solid supply side foundation and I look forward to a burgeoning sector of early education and child care over the next ten years or so.

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