Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, to be held in Busan at the end of this month, will be a milestone in the international effort to strengthen the quality of development assistance. The Government will be represented at this major international meeting by a delegation headed by the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan. The delegation will include the Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Breen, who will also attend the parliamentary forum at the Busan meeting.

Parliamentarians at home and in developing countries have a critical role to play in oversight and in holding Governments to account for the achievement of clear results from development assistance. Ireland is working to ensure that the outcome document from the meeting includes a firm commitment to strengthen the capacity of parliamentarians in developing countries to fulfil this role. We are also arguing that parliamentarians be included in existing forums on aid effectiveness at national level.

The Government has consulted widely in preparing for the forum. In addition to our discussions with Members of the Oireachtas, we have engaged with the higher education and research institutes and with Irish aid agencies. They have made valuable suggestions which we have taken on board in the ongoing negotiations on the final outcome text.

Ireland's position in Busan will be to focus on progress in poverty reduction and on the achievement of development results, particularly in fragile states. We are working to ensure that women and girls are more effectively prioritised in development. Other priorities include strengthening the transparency and accountability of development spending, reducing the bureaucracy of aid management and ensuring civil society can play its legitimate role as partners in poverty reduction.

I hope that the forum in Busan will mark a clear decisive move in placing the effectiveness of aid at the heart of development policy to accelerate progress towards achieving the millennium development goals.

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