Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As previous speakers said, we had a good meeting yesterday with the Tánaiste's officials, who went through this matter in great detail. Everyone agreed that the systems need to be robust and rigorous. Mr. Rogers made the important point that this negative publicity is particularly "dispiriting" given that so much progress has been made in Uganda through the Irish Aid programme. There have been substantial improvements in areas like health, education and development. At a time when the misappropriation of funds obviously and quite rightly attracts negative publicity, we need to send a clear message to the taxpayer that exceptionally good work has been done through Irish Aid programmes over the years. Mr. Rogers mentioned the work that has been done through Irish Aid, Irish missionaries and Irish public servants since 1994. He also referred to the work of Mother Kevina, who apparently built up many schools, clinics and hospitals at the turn of the last century. That type of Irish involvement in bringing services to the people has been of huge benefit to this very deprived country. The Tánaiste will recall that in the report which was presented to him by the audit committee of his Department, Mr. Furlong recommended that a chief risk officer and a qualified head of finance should be appointed in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I presume Mr. Furlong is the former Secretary General and senior civil servant. Is the Tánaiste giving consideration to the creation of such positions?

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