Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

On the basis of the budget allocations, we are moving towards our commitment to spend 0.7% of GNP on overseas development. On current estimates, we will spend some 0.54% of GNP on overseas development aid in 2008. I am confident our spending on development assistance will maintain our position as the sixth most generous donor in the world in per capita terms, which has been confirmed by the OECD for 2007.

The overall focus of the Irish aid programme is on global poverty reduction, in line with our commitment to the Millennium Development Goals which aim to halve global poverty by 2015. I attended the high level Millennium Development Goals event in New York last month with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. There was a clear recognition there that more needs to be done by the international community if the ambitious goals are to be achieved. We committed the Government to ensuring Ireland plays its part and takes a leadership role in the world in this area.

Our priorities in the coming year will continue to focus in particular on the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa, on the hunger crisis, on investment in education, health and the fight against HIV and AIDS, and on good governance and the promotion of gender equality. We are determined to concentrate on those areas which affect those least able to cope, namely, the world's poorest people.

Ireland's aid programme, Irish Aid, has grown significantly and consistently over the last decade. We now have bilateral programmes of long-term strategic development assistance in nine priority countries. These programmes support the provision to millions of people of basic but life-saving services, such as health care, education and sanitation. We have effective partnerships in place with NGOs and missionaries to aid their important work on the ground. At an international level, we are playing our part in funding the development work of the United Nations and the European Union. The scale of this commitment to international development should not be underestimated.

In difficult budgetary times, Ireland remains one of the world's most generous donor nations. The provision of €754 million to Vote 29, international co-operation, of the Department of Foreign Affairs emphasises the growth in terms of quality and volume of the aid programme administered by Irish Aid. Taken together with an estimated aid contribution of €137 million from other Departments, Ireland's overseas aid total in 2009 will be €891 million, approximately the same overall level as for 2008. This is more than twice the aid budget in 2002, only six years ago.

With this commitment we are seeing real progress in many of the countries in which we operate. Let me give some examples of what Irish taxpayers' money is achieving. Our support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has allowed 6.4 million people in Uganda to receive HIV testing and counselling in recent years. In Zambia, Irish Aid has financed a programme of well and borehole building, providing a long-term source of clean water to more than 100,000 people. In Lesotho, our support has helped the government increase primary school enrolment by a third over the last decade.

The allocation in the budget will allow us to support further progress in these countries and to respond to humanitarian disasters as they occur in 2009. It will allow us to maintain and develop our successful partnerships with Ireland's NGOs and missionary organisations engaged in overseas development.

The major international conference organised by Concern in Dublin, at which I spoke this morning, highlights the growing scandal of global hunger, which has been the subject of an important initiative by the Government in the past year. We recently received the hunger task force's report on world hunger. Although we contribute generously to the poorest of the poor in the world, 862 million people will go to bed hungry tonight. We are taking a leadership role on the world stage in this regard. We launched the report of the hunger task force three weeks ago before the Secretary General of the United Nations at its headquarters in New York. Leaders of multinational organisations were also present. That is a measure of our contribution to the international aid effort. The report of the hunger task force, which was agreed by all parties in the House, challenges us all to focus more effectively on the hunger crisis. I said it before, but it bears repeating — it is simply unacceptable that more than 862 million people go hungry every day. The Government is now examining the important recommendations made by the task force with a view to deciding how they can best be addressed across the Irish aid programme and in our international engagements.

We face difficult times at home but we must remain committed to helping the most vulnerable across the world, whose lives remain on a thread every single day. Irish people have a long and proud history of commitment to alleviating the problems of the poorest of the poor. Notwithstanding the difficult circumstances in which we now find ourselves, it is not a time to let down those who are in an infinitely worse position. I am sure Members will agree that no matter how challenging we perceive the situation, we should not let down those who would give everything, no matter how bad their circumstances, to put themselves in our position. Taxpayers have a right to be proud of the contribution they make and the leadership role we play on the world stage. Ireland is recognised as one of the top countries for international aid, not alone in terms of the amounts we give but because our programmes are recognised internationally as some of the most effective in the world. I am proud that the commitment remains at the highest levels to build on the achievements of the Irish aid programme to date, to protect its strong international reputation and to deliver value for money to the taxpayer as we work towards the millennium development goals. I am confident that the measures taken by the Government in Tuesday's budget will put Ireland in a stronger position to restore economic growth and protect future funding of our aid programme. Ireland will continue to demonstrate leadership in development and in solidarity with the world's poorest people.

We meet in extremely difficult and challenging times as most economies will be heading for recession in the next 12 months. These are unprecedented times and there is unprecedented turmoil in the financial markets. Difficult policy choices will need to be made and have been made. The Taoiseach stated earlier in the week that the choices we make now represent a defining moment for our country. We must remember that this is not the first time we have been in this position. Our country has faced serious challenges in the 1950s, the 1970s and especially the 1980s. The economic cycle is a fact of life. It comes and goes. We have had 15 years of some of the most unprecedented economic boom, which could not last forever. That is an economic fact.

See this speech in context