Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 3: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the funding that has been allocated to the world food programme from Ireland for 2008; the amount allocated in 2007; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16662/08]

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The United Nations world food programme, WFP, is one of the world's largest humanitarian agencies and is dependent entirely on voluntary contributions from donors. Last year alone, the WFP provided food assistance for 90 million people worldwide. Ireland is a long-term and committed supporter of the WFP.

Irish funding for the WFP comes from two sources. My colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Mary Coughlan, provides an annual grant towards the core funding of the WFP. My Department, through Irish Aid, provides assistance to the WFP for specific emergencies. The total amount provided for WFP in 2007 was over €24.5 million. To date this year, the overall total Government allocation for the WFP amounts to €20.1 million. This is composed of €9.9 million from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in core funding and €10.2 million from Irish Aid primarily for a number of humanitarian emergencies, including Chad, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Zimbabwe and west Africa.

Irish funding to the WFP has increased rapidly in recent years as that agency has proved itself adept at getting much-needed food relief to those who most need it quickly and effectively. In 2003, total funding to the WFP amounted to approximately €7.8 million. This represents a tripling of assistance in five years. Ireland is now one of the largest donors to the WFP on a per capita basis and this fact has been recognised by the various executive directors of the WFP, who have paid frequent visits to Ireland.

This year, for the first time, the Irish Aid contribution includes a special grant of €3 million for the WFP's special market mitigation account, which has been established to cover the extraordinary increase in the cost of supplying relief rations, owing to recent food and fuel price increases. A further element in Irish Aid's contribution is a grant of €1 million to the WFP arising from the Government's rapid response initiative. The WFP is one of the key partners of Irish Aid's rapid response initiative and this grant covers €600,000 for the construction of a new warehouse facility for its logistics hub for Africa based in Accra, Ghana, as well as €400,000 to enhance the WFP's emergency preparedness capacity.

In addition to our direct support to the WFP, Ireland provides substantial indirect support to the WFP. Ireland is a strong supporter of the UN's central emergency response fund, CERF. This fund ensures that emergency funding is pre-positioned and ready for distribution quickly and effectively to assist those affected by humanitarian emergencies. Since its inception in 2006, Irish Aid has contributed €52.6 million to this fund, of which the WFP is the largest single recipient.

A second source of our indirect support is by way of the European Union. The European Commission recently committed €117 million as a response to the impact of the increase in food prices on the world's most vulnerable people. A substantial portion of this money will go to the WFP.

Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Does the Minister of State agree that in the region of 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day and that the dramatic increase in food prices has the potential to put another 100 million people in this category? It is estimated that it will set back by a full decade the policy of trying to bring people out of the poverty trap.

The WFP is one of the most worthwhile programmes out there. I plead with the Minister to consider moving money from some of our programme countries where we cannot find out what happens to much of the money . For example, Tanzania is to get in the region of €130 million over the next four or five years. Several Ministers out there are currently under investigation for corruption. Until such time as we are satisfied that such moneys are being spent the way we want them to be spent, I ask the Minister of State to consider moving money from the normal programme to the WFP. We give in the region of €20 million between Irish Aid and agriculture, which feeds 19 million people.

Does the Minister agree that very often if a popular theory takes off, we fail to analyse it? There is a conflict on this planet between climate change and the production of food. We cannot have it every way and we need to analyse this. Most people who express concern about climate change have a cause for concern. The Minister of State, Deputy Roche, will be familiar with this. However, very often, the same people are opposed to the concept of GM foods. We must look at science and technology. It is not necessary to increase the amount of land under cultivation but we must make it more productive.

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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It is the small producers in Africa who are the most productive.

Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I will come back with a supplementary. I thank Deputy Higgins for his assistance.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I completely agree with Deputy Timmins's praise for the WFP. I have long been a supporter of it. Deputy Timmins said that climate change has led to droughts and other climate-related difficulties in major cereal-producing countries such as Australia and Ukraine. The switch from the production of cereals as foodstuffs to the production of bio-fuels, most notably in the US where a Government subsidy is being used to promote bio-fuel production in a drive for energy security, has led to a reduction in the supply of food. The current food crisis is caused by a reduction in supply coupled with an increase in demand, which has triggered a steep rise in price. There is a close link between energy prices and food prices. I would like to continue to support the World Food Programme.

The Deputy mentioned Tanzania. I accompanied the Taoiseach to Tanzania in January and while we were there news of a scandal in the Tanzania Central Bank broke and the director of the bank resigned. The prime minster and other ministers resigned over it. The Tanzanian Government is working towards tackling corruption. I do not know if what the Tanzanian Government has done to address such corruption would happen in many member states of the European Union. It has taken action, dealt with the bank and with the Ministers who were involved in such corruption.

Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I agree with the Minister of State. The problem concerning food price increases is not necessarily on the supply side. The same level of supply exists but the demand has diversified from the biofuels sector and there has also been an increase in demand. I am not saying that the Tanzanian Government is not seeking to address corruption. I would expect that it would do so. This is an issue that may be addressed at a later stage on the Order Paper. I would like money to be moved to the World Food Programme, as it is a worthwhile project. I ask the Minister of State to consider doing that.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I can only say that I will support the World Food Programme.

I might add that we established a hunger taskforce, which was timely given that we established it before the issue of global food prices arose. That hunger taskforce has the input of 15 national and international experts. It was established by the Government to identify what Ireland can do to assist international efforts to reduce hunger. It has met on three occasions and I hope it will report to me before July. It will take into account the points the Deputy made. I do not want to pre-empt its recommendations but it will examine the questions of food price increases and global hunger.

I would like there to be a green revolution in Africa similar to the one that took place in Asia and that we would support agriculture and ensure there is an increase in food production.