Dáil debates

Thursday, 2 November 2006

White Paper on Irish Aid: Statements

 

2:00 pm

Photo of Michael WoodsMichael Woods (Dublin North East, Fianna Fail)

This is an important and timely debate as the publication of the White Paper on Irish Aid represents a landmark in the history of Ireland's development co-operation programme. The significance of the White Paper has been recognised on all sides of this House. It is sharply focused on tackling poverty and disadvantage by working in partnership with countries which receive our aid to achieve long-term sustainable results. Its main emphasis is on health, education, agricultural development, good governance and human rights. It provides us with a roadmap for the future and the money to turn our dreams for Africa into a reality.

The White Paper represents a continuation of our commitment to "untied aid" and avoids the creation of debt. It represents in Government policy the spirit and long tradition of Irish missionaries, NGOs and aid workers, and of the Irish at home who, by generous personal support, have been among the best contributors in the world. Its importance has been noted and welcomed in the press and in the media generally and by the development community in Ireland and beyond.

However, the White Paper has a significance beyond the fully justified warm welcome it has received. It represents more than just a policy statement on how Ireland proposes to plan and run its aid programme over the coming years. At a deeper level, the White Paper tells us about the people we are, our principles and values, the country we have become and what we want it to stand for, our sense of justice in an unjust world, our commitment to our fellow human beings in the developing world — the poorest of the poor — and to the marginalised and those who have been forgotten in the globalisation race.

For generations, these values were carried to Africa and other parts of the world by Ireland's missionaries. This work is still being done although to a much lesser degree than in the past because of the decline in vocations. We should never forget that, in one sense, Ireland's first aid programme was the work of the countless Irish missionaries, men and women who spent their lives on the important task of helping to educate the poor in Africa and elsewhere. Much of this missionary work was carried out even before the foundation of the State so there is a long tradition of Irish people's belief in the need to help those in the world who, for whatever reason, were not in a position to help themselves. What is being done now, and what is set out in the White Paper, can be seen as a continuation into the 21st century of a long and honourable tradition of the Irish people's commitment to helping the poor, the disadvantaged and the exploited of this world.

In another sense the White Paper speaks to us about the Ireland of today. It tells us something about ourselves and what this country has become, and what it believes it can and must do as an independent and prosperous member of the international community. I doubt whether the White Paper could have been published in its present form if there had not been such a complete transformation of the economy in the last decade. The plans and financial commitments set out in the White Paper could not have been made without the uniquely strong economic situation we find ourselves in today.

It is against these background thoughts that I wish to speak in more detail about the White Paper. I am pleased to say that as Chairman of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, I arranged to have the White Paper discussed by the joint committee just three weeks ago. On that occasion, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Conor Lenihan, gave the joint committee an overview of the main contents of the White Paper and the members set out their views on it. Their overall response was one of praise and welcome for what was seen as an innovative and comprehensive statement on how Ireland proposes to manage its development co-operation programme in the years immediately ahead.

There are a number of points in the White Paper which I would especially like to highlight. I fully welcome the decision in the White Paper that Ireland will reach the UN target of spending 0.7% on development assistance by 2012. There has been an enormous increase in our aid spending over the last decade and I note that this year alone Ireland will spend €734 million in aid. I am sure all of us in this House will look forward to the day when Ireland has achieved the 0.7% target. It will put us in a very small club of countries which have achieved this target. It will certainly represent an astonishing achievement for Ireland.

I also welcome the fact that Ireland's development co-operation programme is to be an integral part of Ireland's foreign policy. This is a welcome decision and one which other countries, that have not already done so, could well emulate. More donor countries should place their development co-operation programmes at the centre of their foreign policies. This would certainly increase the likelihood that the scourges of poverty, malnutrition, disease and the total lack of sustained human development in the developing world can be tackled in such a way as to lead to their alleviation, if not their total eradication.

Ireland is setting an example in this respect. This decision will give greater credibility to our foreign policy and to our development co-operation programme. In the European Union, the United Nations and other international organisations of which we are members, Ireland, because of this decision, will be in a much better and a more authoritative position to speak on the major issues and problems facing the countries of the developing world. In a world of plenty, where paradoxically millions still do not have enough to eat, where millions of children die in infancy, where diseases such as HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria destroy whole generations and societies, it is entirely appropriate that, as a response, we should put these issues at the centre of this country's concern for our fellow human beings.

I am particularly pleased that Sub-Saharan Africa will be the principal focus for Irish Aid and that Malawi is to become Ireland's next partner country in Africa. We in Ireland are only too well aware of the problems of poverty and lack of development in Africa. I do not need to rehearse for Members the human development statistics for Africa. They make grim reading. In almost every category of human development, African countries come out worst. Cycles of poverty, food insecurity, human rights abuses and disease are greatly exacerbated by seemingly endless cycles of war, famine and corruption. Basic human rights in many instances are non-existent.

Malawi is particularly in need of development assistance. It is ranked 165th in the United Nations human development index, with 65% of its population living below the poverty line. Some 90% of its population of 10.7 million is engaged in subsistence farming and it has suffered persistent food shortages in recent years. HIV-AIDS has devastated the country. Reports state that 700,000 of its 1 million orphans have lost their parents through AIDS. I have no doubt that the Government and people of Malawi will welcome Irish Aid as a partner in tackling some of the horrendous problems facing that country.

In my time as Chairman of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, I and the members of the joint committee took a special interest in Africa and in Ireland's development work there. We visited Zambia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa and saw for ourselves the problems faced by the ordinary people of that Continent. We have also seen the excellent work being carried out by Irish Aid in our partner countries and I am aware from my experience of the high esteem in which Irish Aid is held wherever it has worked. I offer my congratulations to its staff.

Africa and other parts of the developing world are especially vulnerable to sudden and unexpected emergencies of one kind or another. These can be of a truly catastrophic character as in the 2004 tsunami which wrought such havoc and destruction and wholesale loss of life in countries in south-east Asia. Ireland responded magnificently and generously in helping tsunami survivors recover some semblance of normality in their lives after this terrible event. In light of this experience, I am glad to see the White Paper proposes the establishment of a rapid response initiative which will put us in a much better position to respond immediately and effectively to future humanitarian emergencies.

We in Ireland are fortunate in our geographic location in that we are spared many of the natural disasters which other countries unfortunately experience. This is all the more reason, when emergencies occur, we should help as quickly and effectively as possible.

Another initiative in the White Paper which I fully support is the decision to establish a hunger task force. Our history was for many years indelibly marked by our experience of famine. Generations were scarred by it. No other country in Europe has suffered such devastation from famine as Ireland. Our history and folk memory tell us what famines can do and the death and devastation they leave behind. With this knowledge, it is only right that in recent times Ireland has built a proud record of responding to the problems of hunger, food insecurity and famine in poorer countries.

The proposed hunger task force will be a further step in this direction. I am very pleased that the White Paper proposes that the task force will draw on a wide range of experience from within and outside Government and that it will prepare a report within six months of its establishment. As Deputy Gay Mitchell said, there are many people in the community who are capable of co-operating with this drive. He also said he had spoken to someone who had talked to a person who lived through the Famine. I spoke to my great-grandmother at the age of 106 and she too had lived through the Famine. It brings to mind how close these events were.

The decision to open an Irish Aid information and volunteering centre and to provide support for development education in our schools is important. The proposal in the White Paper to establish a unit for conflict analysis and resolution is a very positive one.

There is a proposal that the joint committee should be called the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Irish Aid. That proposal was broadly welcomed by members of the committee and it can be discussed further. I welcome the White Paper and congratulate the Minister and his staff on the excellent preparation that went into it.

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