Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I will take up the Deputy's offer in forgoing the latter part of his question as it is a separate area for the Department of Education and Science. Regarding special governance units, I refer the Deputy to today's Parliamentary Question No. 12. A team has been established to take account of the linkages between good governance and the other cross-cutting issues in the delivery of the aid programme.

Land tenure is the subject of an entire debate of its own in development circles. Research will be carried out in Ireland and our developing partner countries on a collaborative basis with the intention that land policy results in an effective ability to transfer land from generation to generation, family to family. We also want it to set up an appropriate system to allow smallholder farmers to access microfinance and use their land to its productive best. That is not the case in large areas of the African continent because of the enormous problems with land tenure. I will return to the Deputy in writing about funding particular research projects in that area.

See this speech in context