Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for providing me with a timely opportunity to raise this issue. I also thank the Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, for attending in the Dáil. I appreciate the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade has much on his hands at present.

As chairperson of the all-party interest group in the Dáil on sexual and reproductive health rights and population and development, I raised this issue last year with some of my colleagues hoping to ensure we would use our EU Presidency to prioritise gender equality and maternal and child health. I raise it again at the start of our Presidency to encourage the Tánaiste to highlight the importance and urgency of these issues at the various opportunities which will arise for us during the Presidency, namely, the EU budget discussions, the post millennium development goals, MDG, framework discussions and at the conference we will host in April on health, nutrition and climate change. Specifically I want this issue fresh in the mind of the Tánaiste next week when we host an informal meeting of EU development aid Ministers and the High Representative. These are talks in advance of the global discussions on the post-2015 development framework. The Minister of State is aware, as are we all, that the EU contributes a staggering 55% of all world aid so what we prioritise and what we want to bring to the fore carries weight. We need to use our position to focus specifically on sexual and reproductive health rights which have been losing focus and support in recent times with absolutely catastrophic results for millions of women throughout the world.

The prime development goal is to end hunger and poverty. Ireland has always had a particular and historic motivation in this regard. Ending hunger crucially depends on a healthy educated female population in the developing world. Reproductive health care and access to family planning allow women to have some say in the number of children they have and when they have them. Without this, they and their children are subject to a cycle of poverty which no amount of food aid can ever alleviate.

The recent report on the mapping of EU development aid and population assistance showed the total population assistance from the EU institutions is less than 2% of overseas development aid. It also shows, and I am very sorry to have to say this, that Ireland's population assistance as a percentage of overseas development aid is declining. It may be only a marginal decline but it shows that population assistance generally is losing priority even in our aid programmes.

I do not want to suggest that other goals are less important. Rather I contended that achieving all of the MDGs depends on access to contraception by women, who are for the most part the breadwinners, farmers and providers in their societies. Countless millions of lives depend on the good health of these women. This is not just my contention; it is an established fact that access to family planning goes hand in hand with improvements in health and increased prosperity. Giving women control over their fertility and better reproductive health care is the single biggest contribution we can make to sustainable development in the poorest countries and this is what overseas development aid is all about. This is the message I hope will be brought to the informal EU aid Ministers' meeting next week so it is prioritised in the development of the post-2015 development goals. In fact, it should be more than prioritised; it should be central to the framework because it is fundamental to the achievement of the other goals.

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