Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

The Minister of State may be aware that on Thursday morning last a cross-party group of Deputies and Senators joined Dóchas in its campaign to ensure that Ireland meets its commitment in respect of the millennium development goals to reach the target of 0.7% of GDP for official development assistance by 2015. Concerns have arisen in this regard because if one considers the figures, one can see that Ireland's contribution reached a peak of €769 million in 2008. This was almost 0.6% of GDP, which meant we were moving close to our target. In the interim, however, there has been a significant reduction - a couple of hundred million - in the level of our contribution to 0.52%. This represents a decline of almost 0.1% and means that we are moving in the wrong direction. What is the Department's strategy to ensure we might begin, in the context of the forthcoming budget, to move in the right direction again and seek to honour our commitment?

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