Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

Tradition has shown that Irish people have a great interest in aid and in putting their hands into their own pockets. This is evidenced by the fact that 4,000 copies of the White Paper, which I welcome, have been distributed with 31,000 downloaded worldwide. The Minister should examine ensuring that, whether electronically or otherwise, this document is distributed to all libraries and schools in the country. It would not be a big job. Often the public does not know such documents exist.

In his speech the Minister stated it is important to ensure taxpayers' money goes where it is needed. By 2012 some €1.5 billion should have been spent on this, which is a lot of money. While I do not have any empirical evidence, anecdotal evidence tells me that much of this money goes astray through maladministration. I do not know what audit systems we have in place. As we give more money there will be greater pressure, and rightly so, to ensure this money is audited correctly and reaches its targets. I am concerned that it does not. Many organisations in this country operate on small budgets which they raise themselves. Mr. Terence O'Malley operates in Afghanistan. Deputy Michael Higgins is familiar with him. I am involved with the Umbrella Foundation run by Mr. David Cutler, which operates in Kathmandu, Nepal. On a shoestring budget supplied by its own fundraising here it carries out greater work than many of the officially recognised bodies.

We must ensure our money goes to the correct places. We could do this by looking outside the box. In the last few years we have taken many Filipino nurses into this country. We have drained a poor country of its resources after it invested in educating them. We should examine, for example, the concept of funding medical training or building a training hospital in the Philippines. If we take resources from that country there is an onus on us to put something into it. It would also give us the opportunity to ensure the correct qualifications and standards are in place. We need to examine such projects, put the money in directly and get people to supervise them. We cannot give aid to countries on the one hand and on the other take their best resource, their educated people, out of their system. Our policy is a little two-faced. Deputy Durkan mentioned building accommodation like Mr. Niall Mellon's group does in South Africa. We could examine that and be more pro-active.

I want to deal with the rapid response initiative, which our party advocated for a long time. It is important. Large numbers of people are to become involved, however I have one major complaint: it is under the wrong Department. It should be in the Department of Defence because that is where the expertise is. It is where the Minister will go to store and administer the supplies. While the Minister for Foreign Affairs cleverly latched onto a concept that we pushed for a while, the Minister for Defence was slow off the mark. It should be given back to the Minister for Defence.

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