Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

The focus of Ireland's overseas development programme is the elimination of poverty. Irish Aid works to improve access to basic health care, education, clean water and adequate housing for some of the poorest communities in the world.

The White Paper on Irish Aid, published in September 2006, identified the principles and priorities for the programme as it expands to meet the target of spending 0.7% of GNP on our ODA by 2012. It also sets out a wide range of initiatives that will be funded under the expanded aid programme. Africa will remain the principal focus of our assistance in the coming years and the number of our partner countries will increase from eight to ten. Malawi has been selected as our ninth partner country and a programme of development co-operation will begin there this year.

The struggle against HIV-AIDS is particularly important and we allocate over €100 million in respect of it and other communicable diseases every year. We also need to maintain our ability to respond quickly and effectively to humanitarian disasters. The rapid response initiative announced in the White Paper has already considerably improved our capacity to respond to these crises. Other priority areas include good governance, conflict prevention, gender and the environment.

Our commitment to working in partnership with NGOs is as strong as ever. Some of Ireland's largest NGOs will receive over €100 million from the Government this year. Irish Aid will also provide €20 million this year in support of the development work of Irish missionaries.

The United Nations has a strong mandate to tackle global poverty and Irish Aid is increasing the level of assistance channelled through specialised agencies such as UNICEF, the UNDP and the UNHCR. The European Union is the largest development assistance donor in the world and Ireland's contribution to this effort through the European Development Fund is expected to reach €206 million between 2008 and 2013. Ireland plays an active role in shaping and monitoring EU aid expenditure.

We are also working with global initiatives, particularly in the areas of health and education, to deliver long-term change. These include the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Global Alliance for Vaccinations and Immunisations.

Our plans for the distribution of Ireland's overseas development assistance are guided by the principles of partnership, transparency and effectiveness. The opening of the Irish Aid volunteering and information centre on O'Connell Street in Dublin last month will allow the public to engage more directly with development issues and with the programme as it expands in the coming years.

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