Results 241-260 of 881 for speaker:Peter Power

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

Peter Power: Irish Aid's support for humanitarian action is provided through a variety of organisations which are responding to emergency needs on the ground, including multilateral organisations such as UN agencies and the Red Cross/Red Crescent. All of our multilateral partners maintain dedicated evaluation functions. These plan and implement rigorous evaluation work programmes. The reports of these...

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

Peter Power: I propose to take Questions Nos. 43 and 54 together. The Programme for Government contains a clear commitment to the expansion of the Aid Programme. We have set a target of spending 0.7% of GNP on Official Development Assistance (ODA) by 2012. For 2008 the Government has allocated approximately €900 million to ODA. The bulk of this funding — €769 million — comes under Vote 29,...

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

Peter Power: Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991, and despite an initial period of stability after Ethiopian troops and Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces defeated the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in December 2006, the situation has worsened catastrophically in the last year. There has been a pattern of fighting in the capital Mogadishu since November 2007, between...

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

Peter Power: The Government's official programme of development assistance, Irish Aid, has as its overarching objectives poverty reduction and sustainable development. Africa remains the principal geographic focus for Irish Aid, containing as it does 34 of the world's least developed countries. In this regard, seven of our nine Programme Countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa — Tanzania, Zambia, Lesotho,...

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...

Written Answers — Overseas Development Aid: Overseas Development Aid (15 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: The Millennium Development Goal for hunger is to reduce by 50% the proportion of those suffering from hunger by the year 2015. Progress to date on achieving this goal has been mixed. Success has been most marked in East Asia — notably in China and Vietnam. While some progress has been evident in other regions, such progress has been insufficient. In Southern Asia almost 50% of children are...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (16 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: The budget allocation for Vote 29, overseas aid and international development, amounts to €753,942,000. This represents a hugely important statement by the Government at a time of economic difficulty at home and abroad. Administration of the budget amounts to €35,642,000, which represents 4.6% of the budget and, by international standards, would be considered positive. Bilateral and...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (16 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: Over the years, in difficult and in good times, the Irish people have demonstrated their generosity and their commitment to the world's most vulnerable people. They have contributed as individuals and as communities with their time and their financial resources. The Government has matched this commitment and, with the budget for 2009, has underlined our clear view that the poorest and most...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (16 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: We will get to that.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (16 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: On the basis of the budget allocations, we are moving towards our commitment to spend 0.7% of GNP on overseas development. On current estimates, we will spend some 0.54% of GNP on overseas development aid in 2008. I am confident our spending on development assistance will maintain our position as the sixth most generous donor in the world in per capita terms, which has been confirmed by the...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (16 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: We have repositioned our economy in recent years to take advantage of the global trading environment.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (16 Oct 2008)

Peter Power: That has brought huge benefits to our economy but it also carries huge risks. The key question is how we react and how we position ourselves. History has shown that we must learn from the lessons of the past. If we shirk difficult decisions, they will become more difficult to take and more painful for our citizens. Painful though they are now they would become infinitely more painful in...