Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his reply but it does not really deal with the issue I am raising. Is there an opportunity to reconsider the manner in which we grant aid in this area in light of the Transparency International figures bandied about that up to $150 billion is lost to the Third World in corruption annually? At a time when there is a scarcity of money throughout the world and there will be less money than in the past, there may be some justification to reconsider adopting a country, under the UN flag, for five years. This would bring an in-depth knowledge of what the money is being used for. Perhaps countries can be rotated over different periods, with agreement from other nations who are in a similar position to us in granting aid. That is the point I was trying to get across so could it be considered?

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