Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

In approaching the Estimates process I wished to secure funding that would allow us to promote Ireland's political, economic and humanitarian interests in the European Union and the wider world; to advance the process of securing peace, reconciliation and partnership on the island of Ireland; and to protect the interests of Irish citizens abroad. I am pleased to say the achievement of all these objectives is reflected in the 2006 allocation for the Department of Foreign Affairs. This funding will allow the Department to meet a number of important commitments and extend its outreach in a number of significant areas.

The 2006 Estimate for the Department of Foreign Affairs consists of two Votes: €186.6 million for Vote 28 — Foreign Affairs; and €600 million for Vote 29 — International Co-operation or Overseas Development Assistance. I am delighted to announce that 2006 will see record expenditure on official development assistance. With the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, I have achieved the largest increase in overseas development aid by any Government. In September the Government announced that we would reach the UN target for spending on aid of 0.7% of GNP by 2012. We also announced a number of clear benchmarks along the way. We will reach the first of these, 0.47% of GNP, next year, which will be achieved through this Estimate allocation, and reach the 0.5% benchmark in 2007.

The Department's €600 million allocation, taken with the contributions of other Departments, means total Government spending on aid will reach €675 million in 2006. This represents an overall increase of €129 million, or 24%, on the 2005 total aid allocation. The increase in the aid programme for next year is greater than the value of the entire aid programme in 1995 — €123m. To put it another way, we will spend €160 for every man, woman and child in the country in 2006 to help the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world. We have trebled the allocation from 1998 to date and now commit to trebling it again between now and 2012.

Speaking at the UN summit in September, the Taoiseach outlined four key areas of action for the expanding programme: doubling our funding for efforts to combat HIV-AIDS and other communicable diseases to €100 million; providing extra resources to combat famine and hunger and improving our capacity to respond to disasters — the establishment of a rapid response corps, which I announced last week, will form an important part of this strategy; supporting an increased role for the private sector in development efforts; and increasing our support for efforts to strengthen governance and combat corruption. These four areas will provide the basis for the immediate expansion of the programme.

Next year's White Paper, on which the Minister of State has widely consulted, will set the direction of policy for the coming years. It will ensure Ireland remains, in the words of the OECD, "at the cutting edge of international development policy". One of the key challenges we face domestically is to build public awareness and understanding of the problems of under-development. I have asked my officials to explore new and imaginative ways of letting the people know what we are doing with their money.

Ireland has a long and proud record of sending people to help the less able and less fortunate around the world. In this light, I was pleased to announce last week that the Minister of State and I would establish a volunteer corps unit within the Department. This unit will have a clear and straightforward mandate to harness the strong volunteer spirit across the country. We aim to utilise the wide range of skills possessed by Irish workers in industry, education, the health sector and across the public and private sectors to facilitate the matching of their skills with the needs of the developing world.

We will provide greater assistance for existing volunteer and development agencies and identify opportunities for more Irish individuals to work with groups such as the United Nations volunteer organisation. With the ongoing commitment of the Government to the development agenda and the large and predictable increases now in prospect, we can set ourselves the achievable aim of being the best in the development field. That is what the public expects and deserves.

I am conscious that the poor and the vulnerable can also be found within communities of Irish citizens who live abroad. The 2002 report of the task force on emigrants provided an agenda for action which my Department is proactively taking forward. I am delighted to announce that funding for emigrant services will again increase in 2006. The Government's commitment to this priority area is clearly demonstrated by the 45% increase in funding for 2005, to the unprecedented amount in 2006 of €12 million. Overall, funding in this area will be 12 times greater than when the Government took office in 1997.

These substantial increases in allocations reflect in the clearest way possible the strength of the Government's continuing commitment to our emigrant communities, particularly in Britain and the United States. The Irish abroad unit set up in my Department a few years ago works in close partnership with emigrant support organisations at home and abroad to protect and advance the interests of vulnerable Irish communities overseas. Our partners in the voluntary sector have warmly welcomed the substantial increase in funding in recent years. The bulk of the funding will go to organisations helping those in the emigrant community in Britain who are in the greatest need of support.

Another area of particular concern relates to the undocumented Irish in the United States. On the immigration front, this is a complex time of change and many of the undocumented Irish are living in stressful circumstances. Our funding to the Irish immigration centres across the United States is growing and supports the delivery of an enhanced range of services to our citizens. I know and appreciate that all parties in the House share our concern about the plight of undocumented Irish citizens in the United States. This was manifested in the support given by all sides to the recent Dáil motion on the legislation in the US Congress sponsored by Senators McCain and Kennedy. The Government continues to avail of every opportunity to lobby for this important Bill and I will travel to Washington for this purpose next week.

With regard to other allocations, there are increases across the spectrum. There will be a €4 million increase in Ireland's funding contributions to international organisations. Most of this results from increased mandatory contributions to the United Nations, including an increase in Ireland's share of the UN peacekeeping budget. Our continuing commitment to the United Nations reflects its importance as the primary mechanism for ensuring international security.

A significant increase is also being given in grant aid to the European Movement in Ireland to allow it to expand its work of disseminating information and stimulating debate on EU matters. We are providing an allocation of €200,000 for my Department's obligations under phase 2 of the Asia strategy to facilitate incoming trade delegations and media visits from the priority Asian countries and the expansion of our exchange programme with them. A substantial increase for the promotion of cultural activities will provide our missions abroad with an improved capacity to further enhance awareness and appreciation of Ireland and Irish culture.

With regard to Northern Ireland, the 2006 Estimates provide an allocation of €2.7 million to resource the operation of my Department's reconciliation fund which supports cross-community engagement within Northern Ireland and enhanced contact and dialogue between both parts of the island and between Ireland and Britain. Compared to the scale of the EU Peace Programme and the International Fund for Ireland, the resources of the reconciliation fund are relatively modest. Nevertheless, it has proven to be very effective in making interventions in areas where the larger funding agencies might not have been as active and in generating goodwill in communities that hitherto might not have been well disposed to the Government.

A significant proportion of Vote 28, some 79% of the gross Estimate, goes towards funding the operational costs of the Department's headquarters and its missions abroad, where as Deputies will agree, we provide facilities across the spectrum to look after the interests of Irish citizens and protect their safety abroad.

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