Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

There can be no question but that the sharp escalation in the price of staple food commodities such as corn, wheat and rice is a matter for the deepest concern. These price rises are undermining the food security of many millions of individuals and communities throughout the developing world. We already had a situation where over 800 million people were food insecure. With the current price increases, this already unacceptable situation can only worsen.

We are responding with both short-term and long-term measures. In the short term, we have responded by providing a special grant of €3 million to the market mitigation account of the World Food Programme, the specialised agency of the UN system which is tasked with providing food aid to those most in need.

We are also responding in our programme countries in trying to promote food security for those communities most vulnerable to price shocks. Ethiopia is probably the programme country most deeply affected by food insecurity. There we have increased our support to the social safety nets programme by 25% to €11 million this year. This programme is seeking to prevent over 7 million people from tipping over the edge into destitution and starvation.

In the longer term, the crisis triggered by escalating food prices has underscored the importance of the work of our hunger task force. The task force is chaired by our colleague, the former Minister for Agriculture and Food, Joe Walsh, and has high-profile national and international experts among its membership. I look forward to receiving its recommendations in due course. I expect they will be a guide to our longer-term response to this crisis and to the issue of livelihoods more generally.

As regards convening a conference in Ireland to discuss the issue of food insecurity, the Deputy will be aware the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation has already convened a special high level conference on world food security, entitled "The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy". This conference was held in Rome between 3 and 5 June and our delegation was led by my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The Rome high level conference adopted by consensus a declaration where the member states pledged themselves to embrace food security as a matter of permanent national policy and renewed their commitment to achieving the millennium development goals. The full text of that declaration is available in the Library. There is a further high level discussion to be hosted by the French EU Presidency, the Commission and the Parliament, scheduled to be held in Brussels on 3 July, on the issue of sustainable agriculture as a driver of development. In the circumstances, I do not think that any further conference convened by Ireland would provide added value.

We will continue to play our part in addressing the food issue through working with the international community to strengthen efforts to address the root causes of hunger as well as alleviating the immediate consequences of the current shortages. As I mentioned, I also await the report of our own hunger task force.

See this speech in context