Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I agree. I thank Deputy Allen for his remarks. The principle of our aid programme is to focus on poverty and those in greatest need. It would be shocking and terrible if we punished the poor for the misdeeds of their government. That is an outrageous suggestion. It is nonsense for any NGO, charity or anyone pretending to assist Africa to suggest we should cut and run at the first sign of difficulty. That is not the Irish tradition. It was not the tradition of Irish missionaries 100 years ago and it is not the attitude of today's aid programme. That view is held on a cross-party basis in this House and in the committees that discuss these matters.

Corruption is a serious problem for African countries and, as Deputy Gormley said, spending in some regimes is focused on the military, which is inappropriate and wrong. The fact that it is often because of fear of neighbours and regional conflict is no defence. A number of years ago we, with other like-minded donors, used pressure to prevent the Government of Uganda from increasing the amount of money it spent on its defence budget. It is important to recognise that the African Union, through the New Partnership for Africa's Development, NEPAD, process, is conducting for the first time its peer review group mechanism with regard to evaluating governance, corruption, respect for human rights and law. That is a welcome beginning. The onus is not just on the recipient countries in which we operate but also on this Government to justify the programme to our taxpayers who pay for it through taxation.

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