Results 641-660 of 881 for speaker:Peter Power

Written Answers — Overseas Development Aid: Overseas Development Aid (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: Irish Aid has in place rigorous accounting and audit controls that recognise the various types of risk inherent in delivering a large scale and multi-faceted aid programme in difficult and challenging environments. The Evaluation and Audit Unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs has responsibility for overseeing the internal audit function, which includes Irish Aid. This unit is staffed by...

Written Answers — Overseas Development Aid: Overseas Development Aid (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: I am aware of the recent increase in food insecurity in Ethiopia which is currently facing its most vulnerable period since the early 1980s because of a combination of food price inflation and drought. A number of regions in Ethiopia are particularly at risk because the cumulative effect of repeated shocks of this kind have left them especially vulnerable and without any means of coping....

Written Answers — Overseas Development Aid: Overseas Development Aid (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: Wherever it is feasible and effective to do so, Irish Aid is committed to working through existing national systems, so as to reinforce good governance and avoid undermining national capacity. This approach is recognised as best practice and is pursued by all those donors who have acceded to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, including Ireland. No Irish Aid funding goes directly to...

Written Answers — Debt Relief: Debt Relief (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: Ireland is closely engaged with the issue of alleviation of the debt burden on developing countries. The Government has provided considerable resources to initiatives designed to ease or cancel the debt burden. Moreover, our bilateral assistance to the developing world is exclusively in the form of grants rather than loans. The Government's financial contributions to debt relief have...

Written Answers — Hunger Task Force: Hunger Task Force (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: The current escalation in world food prices has highlighted the importance of food security. The establishment of the Hunger Task Force was a key recommendation of the White Paper on Irish Aid which was published before the onset of the current crisis. We established it because we knew from our people on the ground in developing countries that hunger was increasing — particularly in...

Written Answers — Foreign Conflicts: Foreign Conflicts (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: I remain deeply concerned at the situation in Darfur, and the ongoing suffering of its people. As a result of ongoing violence, the broader humanitarian situation in Darfur continues to be characterised by forced movement of civilians, continuing increases in internally displaced persons (IDPS) and rising tension in camps. Ireland and our European Union colleagues are particularly concerned...

Written Answers — Overseas Development Aid: Overseas Development Aid (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: I would like to assure the Deputy that it is of particular importance to me that Irish tax payers' money benefits the poorest and most vulnerable people of the countries in which we operate. Irish Aid funding is protected by rigorous monitoring, accounting and audit controls which are in place in all countries where we provide development assistance and such controls and systems mean that...

Written Answers — Overseas Development Aid: Overseas Development Aid (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: The Government has strongly supported initiatives to ease or cancel the debt burden on developing countries. Importantly, Ireland's bilateral assistance to the developing world is exclusively in the form of grants rather than loans. There are two main international instruments which address the problem of the debt burden in the developing world, the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI)...

Written Answers — Overseas Development Aid: Overseas Development Aid (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: Recent data released by the United Nations Joint Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) demonstrate that the global HIV prevalence — the number of people living with HIV — has levelled off and that the number of new infections has fallen. This is primarily due to much improved surveillance methodologies, along with some positive impacts of HIV programmes. However, in 2007 over 33 million people were...

Overseas Development Aid. (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: It is estimated that Ireland's spending on official development assistance, ODA, for 2008 will reach 0.54% of GNP. The Government is committed to reaching the UN target of spending 0.7% of GNP on ODA by 2012. We remain on course to meet that objective. I am confident that this year Ireland will also maintain its position as the sixth most generous per capita donor in the world, which was...

Overseas Development Aid. (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: The Deputy will find out almost exactly at the same time I do what the budget allocation will be for 2009. As he well knows, nobody can predict what that will be until it is published by the Minister for Finance on that particular day. It is, however, important to know that the overarching target of 0.7% is expressed as a percentage of GNP. That obviously translates, on a year by year...

Overseas Development Aid. (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: The Deputy mentioned the Hunger Task Force report. That is the subject of a separate question and we shall delve into that shortly. NGOs have an enormous role as regards delivery. They deliver more than €100 million of overseas development aid on behalf of the Irish taxpayer.

Overseas Development Aid. (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: They are involved in all of our programme countries in their own right and——

Overseas Development Aid. (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: ——they are very much engaged in delivering their own programmes. As I said, they deliver an enormous percentage of the overall Irish Aid budget on the ground. Indeed they are one of the key delivery mechanisms on behalf of the taxpayer. As regards small projects, a system is in place for micro-funding, up to a limit of €20,000. The application process is relatively simple. They are...

Overseas Development Aid. (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: I propose to take Questions Nos. 8, 22, 50 and 60 together. The report of the Hunger Task Force, which was commissioned by the Government last year, was submitted on 25 September at the recent UN Millennium Summit in New York. The Hunger Task Force was established before the current global food price crisis hit the headlines and was informed by our knowledge gained on the ground, through our...

Overseas Development Aid. (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: I agree with the Deputy. Regarding the 862 million, that figure came from international multilateral agencies such as the United Nations, the World Food Programme and from a collation of experts in the area. It is their estimate that 862 million people will go hungry to bed tonight. With reference to the figure of 20%, it should be noted that a considerable proportion of Irish aid...

Overseas Development Aid. (9 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: The point is very well made. Part of the problem regarding the declining capacity of many developing countries to produce their own food is the increasing fragmentation of small holdings. That is a major problem. Allied to that are problems with establishing proof of legal tenure, including that of women who comprise, surprisingly, 80% of all farmers in Africa. This figure is borne out in...

Seanad: Hunger Task Force Report: Statements (7 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: I apologise for my brief absence, in which I missed the contributions of Senators Cummins and Ormonde. They may rest assured that I will examine their contributions in detail in due course. All the contributions to which I had the pleasure of listening were very insightful and, in some cases, thought-provoking, particularly in the case of Senator Alex White. This debate is very timely and...

Seanad: Hunger Task Force Report: Statements (7 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: I am pleased to have this opportunity to join Members in the Seanad for this debate on the Hunger Task Force report. It comes at a particularly difficult and turbulent time on the international scene. This House has debated long and hard, well into the night and early morning, the crisis in the international financial sector, and Members have been bombarded and lobbied in regard to...

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (30 Sep 2008)

Peter Power: I propose to take Questions Nos. 406, 408 and 412 together. Under the Government's decentralisation programme announced in 2003, 125 posts attached to the Development Cooperation Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs would decentralise to Limerick. The Division is the Headquarters of Irish Aid. Following sanction of an additional 20 posts by the Department of Finance in 2005, the...