Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his contribution but, while his statement contained a bit of self-praising propaganda regarding Irish development assistance targets, he neglected to note that these targets fall far short of the commitment given by the Taoiseach at the millennium summit in 2000. The poor of this world will have to wait many more years before they receive effective aid.

Much of our business with the Minister of State can be conducted through the committees on foreign affairs and european affairs, so I want to use this debate as a vehicle to ask the questions the public would like us to raise. Before I do so, however, I call on the Minister of State to bring us up to date on the biggest threat to Ireland's development assistance programme, namely his hamfisted attempts to force through the decentralisation programme, thereby threatening the institutional memory of Irish Aid.

I also raised the question of the development fund for Iraq and the misappropriation of massive amounts of money in Iraq therefrom. What has happened, what investigations have taken place and what questions has the Government asked about these allegations? This money was earmarked for the Iraqi people but it seems to have gone into the pockets of well-placed contacts of political figures.

The other issue about which I wish to inquire is the decision made at European level to stop humanitarian funding to the Palestinian Authority. This was raised earlier and will be raised again. Was Ireland a party to that appalling decision and would it be possible to have some transparency in respect of it?

I will use the remainder of the time available to pose some of the questions that have been coming through to us on the EU and the developing world and I will give the Minister the opportunity to prepare answers. Why, somebody asks, does the Commission continue to pursue aggressive trade tactics at the WTO and through economic partnership agreements to open up developing countries despite its commitment to use trade to enhance development?

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