Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State. Like other speakers, I compliment Senator Henry on putting down this motion on Ireland's relationship with the developing world. This issue is often left on the sidelines and does not get the attention it rightfully deserves. In the 1990s our economy grew at historic levels. We also saw massive increases in public expenditure, a key element of which was the growth in overseas assistance. This has been pushed on to meet our UN target of 0.7%, to which other speakers referred. Senator Lydon said the Taoiseach restated this at the world summit in Johannesburg last September.

The Minister of State and Senator Norris – I nearly called him Minister; he is almost a Minister – spoke about the Irish aid programme and how Ireland Aid has been reviewed. We see this being implemented at the moment. Our level of assistance to Africa has never been this high. Senator Minihan said that within the EU Ireland was the sixth highest contributor; we are possibly the fifth highest but I stand corrected and bow to his greater knowledge. This is a wonderful achievement for a country the size of Ireland; a decade ago ours was one of the poorest countries in the EU.

Earlier this year I was in Lesotho, one of Ireland's target countries, in a private capacity. I saw at first hand the wonderful work being done with the assistance of Irish taxpayers' money. Ireland is supporting and leading programmes in health, education and access to clean water and is also helping in the fight against HIV/AIDS. I was amazed that Ireland was leading a fight for as basic a need as clean water but I came away thinking how good a programme Ireland Aid is running. It is money well spent and is a programme we in Ireland can be proud of. It touches the lives of many people and is based on a partnership with local people and local government.

We are all aware of the billions of dollars being spent by the international community over the last 30 years on development co-operation, yet the average person in Africa today is less well off than 30 years ago. It is therefore clear the answer is not money; it is about the quality of our input. It is not about bringing solutions from Europe and other parts of the developing world to Africa; it is about helping the poor find solutions to their own problems. That is what Senator Quinn alluded to.