John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)

Mr. Gay Mitchell, MEP, who is a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Development, recently made a suggestion in respect of this matter. The Minister of State quoted the OECD report. I accept that the marks out of ten for the Government and Irish Aid in respect of the work they have done were extremely high. However, the OECD expressed one main concern with regard to the type of cuts being made and the amount of money being removed from the overseas development budget and recommended that these cuts should not be made.

There is a mechanism by means of which the Government could honour its commitment, satisfy the OECD and demonstrate that the speeches its members have made during the past five to ten years were not empty. There is a way it can end the ambiguity it has demonstrated. It can do so by legislating to ensure that 0.7% of GNP will be devoted to the overseas development budget.

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