Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

There is an onus on this House and on me, as Minister, to justify the programme to the people, who have justifiable concerns that perhaps our money could be misdirected, wasted or maladministered by a partner country. The Government is involved in headline budget support in very few, if any, countries. We have moved into headline budget support only in a small way. All the funding from Irish taxpayers into programme countries is ring-fenced into areas such as health, education, the fight against AIDS, capacity enhancement and governance. In Zambia we funded an anti-corruption commission. I was delighted when visiting there in December 2004 to meet the head of the commission. Since then the commission has come up with a successful prosecution in the British courts of former president Chiluba, who is alleged to have misappropriated funds belonging to the people of Zambia. Such developments are beginning to happen. In the context of the White Paper, there will be a greater focus on corruption and governance issues generally. When we announced our decision on the 2012 target in New York the Taoiseach indicated that four issues would be strong in the programme: corruption, food security, AIDS and bringing more private sector involvement to the programme.

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