Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

We are in tune with and support the Accra agenda. The Deputy's point is well made. For some time there was a lack of co-ordination between donor countries and we put too much stress on recipient countries in terms of their governmental capacity to absorb and spend aid. Now, different countries and donors take a lead in respect of countries in certain areas, for example, in Uganda in terms of education. Ireland has supported the Government of Uganda strongly on the education agenda, to such an extent that Uganda now provides education for an extra 5 million children who started school over the past decade as a result of the introduction of free primary education.

In Uganda, Ireland has contributed to building better schools, training teachers, revising the curriculum, providing books, training school managers and so on. Our work there is a good illustration of how we dovetail with a national governmental agenda in terms of genuine sustainable reform and improvement of the existing governmental system vis-À-vis education. This is the approach we are consistently endeavouring to pursue with governments.

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