Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

Last week the Government took the difficult decision to reduce the total official development assistance, ODA, budget for 2009 from €891 million to €796 million — a saving of €95 million. This was taken in the context of the wider Government decision to reduce current expenditure in 2009. It has only one purpose — the curbing of public expenditure in order to provide the platform needed for the renewal of economic growth.

The size of our aid programme is explicitly linked to GNP growth. Simply increasing the percentage of assistance given in the context of declining GNP would neither be in the interests of the poorest people in the developing world nor to the credibility of Ireland's aid programme. The absolute imperative is to provide for national economic recovery, enabling us to resume expansion of the programme. As the Deputy will be aware, Ireland's ODA has seen dramatic growth in the past decade. Our total ODA contribution has grown from €255 million in 2000 to €899 million in 2008. In the past six years alone, Ireland has provided more than €4 billion in ODA, all of this untied, and the vast bulk going to the world's least developed and poorest countries for the benefit of their citizens.

While the allocation for 2009 has been reduced to €796 million, Ireland's aid programme remains at an historically high level. In fact, we are confident that in 2009 Ireland will continue to be one of the most generous donors on a per capita basis and we would expect to maintain our position of sixth within the OECD donor family. I assure the Deputy that the Government's priority will now be to ensure that the budget provided for the aid programme is implemented effectively and in line with our priorities as outlined in the White Paper in Irish Aid.

I am determined that Ireland's aid programme will continue to focus on assistance to the poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, and to place the needs of the most vulnerable people in these countries at the heart of the programme. The reduction of hunger and poverty are at the core of our aid programme. We will continue to invest in basic services, including primary education and health services. In response to the report of the Government's hunger task force, we will continue our leading role in the fight against the scourge of hunger. Last month, I responded to and endorsed the recommendations of the report and stated that the hunger crisis will be a cornerstone of Ireland's development policy.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

Sectors such as good governance, HIV and AIDS, gender equality and economic development will also remain important aspects of our aid programme. On current GNP projections for 2009, we estimate that our ODA spending in the coming year will be in the region of 0.54%. While this will represent a decrease on the 2008 outturn, we are determined to continue working towards the 2012 target and are significantly closer to achieving the UN target than most of our EU partners.

See this speech in context