Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

While I would like to agree that the trade and aid briefs should be integrated, I do not wish to say so, in case it sounds as though I am outlining a self-interested position.

I thank all Members who have contributed to this debate on the White Paper. As Minister of State with responsibility in this area, I am proud to have delivered this White Paper, within two years of taking up this brief, as a road map for the future expansion of the aid programme. I am also very proud as a Minister of State to have delivered the largest cash and percentage increases ever received by the Irish aid programme. It is reflective of our confidence and ability as a people and our affluence that we can afford to make these large volume cash and percentage commitments. It is a clear sign that the Irish people are willing to take up this challenge and springs, as many speakers in this debate have noted, from our history of conquest, colonisation and famine. I am very proud to stand here as a Minister of State and state that there is broad cross-party consensus on development issues in this House.

The clear challenge is how we can expand this programme with a view to ensuring we achieve maximum value for money from the perspective of our taxpayers and also ensuring our aid programme delivers for the people whom we claim to be helping. This is a significant issue, which is perhaps why I am the only Minister to come before Oireachtas committees and this House to ask for more Dáil scrutiny of Irish aid. More scrutiny is good news for the taxpayer, the people whom we claim and wish to help and this House.

I was very taken with submissions made in the course of this debate by Deputy Gay Mitchell and the former Labour Party leader, Deputy Quinn. I emphasise that we are not and will never be a soft touch for people who wish to purloin Irish aid and pervert it for other purposes, self-aggrandising or otherwise. However, we are very well evaluated. In the last two years, I have secured 20 additional staff for the purposes of evaluation and audit within my Department. This was achieved against a background of a Civil Service embargo on such recruitment so I have delivered in that respect. I am determined that the medium-term needs of this particular programme as it expands, particularly in respect of staffing, will be addressed. One of my predecessors, Deputy O'Donnell, made this point. She is correct in stating that we cannot continue to deliver this massive expansion in the programme with current staffing. Following recent discussions with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance, I am confident we can achieve an increase in staffing and I will insist that expansion is accompanied by staff increases that match the significant amounts of money now being committed to the cause.

Deputy Gay Mitchell's contribution was marked by his willingness to bring new ideas to the table. Some of these ideas, such as volunteerism and twinning our local authorities, are already being implemented. For example, twinning is being implemented through South Dublin County Council's involvement in Ethiopia. We want to see more people in this House participating and involving themselves in scrutinising our programme but we also want to leverage more of our new institutions which can be involved in development, be they local authorities or hospitals. We must be careful, as Deputy Eamon Ryan argued, that we do not give with one hand and take away with another. We must be careful we do not spend millions of euro on combatting AIDS in Africa and commit funding to doing so and at the same time rob Africa of its medical and health professionals. We have already taken action in this regard. The Health Service Executive is a signatory to what was loosely termed internationally as a non-poaching agreement and has committed itself to not aggressively recruiting health workers from particular countries in Africa where health personnel are leaving in droves. We are in line with international best practice with our aid programme and the practices we allow under the auspices of the aid programme.

Deputy Carey correctly noted that there is no quick fix for development. Many people become fixated about corruption in Africa and forget about civil disturbance and the chronic food shortages, insecurity and underspending there. These are significant long-term issues which, thankfully, are being addressed through the international community and our own efforts. I am not making any excuses for African regimes, corrupt or otherwise, but many of them were used as playthings by superpowers during the Cold War at a period when they should have achieved what economists politely term economic take off or lift. They were robbed of this take off so one cannot, as Deputy Quinn attempted to do, make comparisons between countries in Asia and countries with lesser outcomes in Africa. They are different parts of the world with distinctly different histories and economic experiences.

We remain committed to helping the developing world. This White Paper, of which I am extremely proud, provides us with the road map. I acknowledge that it does not contain everything. I note that many speakers, including Deputy Michael D. Higgins, would have wished for the inclusion of other measures. I wish to be very clear in respect of Deputy Quinn's comment about corruption. We will not tolerate corruption on our programme and will be as tough as anybody else in the world in terms of protecting the basic integrity of our Irish aid programme, our taxpayers' money and our approach, which is undeniably motivated by the good wishes of the Irish people. We will ensure this money goes to the right people and is not purloined.

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