Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

Senator Minihan gave a very comfortable analysis of where the Government is going. It was his party colleague, when Minister of State with responsibility for overseas aid, who said she had liberated ODA from the annual Estimates wrangle. Unfortunately that liberation was short lived and is now lost as we have returned to uncertainty. We cannot say with any degree of certainty that we are set to reach our goal in 2007. We must address that. I know of the Senator's absolute commitment to ensuring aid increases but let us not congratulate ourselves on a recovery of €30 million from what had been a loss of €30 million some months ago. There is a major political battle ahead to ensure we fulfil our obligations by 2007.

We are in the midst of an international war on terrorism, which is being led by the United States, but where is the international war on poverty? Who is leading the international war against AIDS and to bring fair play and justice to the world? Senator Ryan made the valid point that never before has the world been so divided. In the 1950s and 1960s, when there was much less worldwide economic prosperity, the gap between rich and poor was half what it is now.

While we, in Ireland, are doing our bit, there does not seem to be an international political will to tackle the huge problems of poverty, famine and AIDS. The attitude of the United States, the greatest democracy in the world, to this problem is very weak. We might look at the record of American presidents in this regard. We are told that Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were marvellous presidents and both were re-elected by the American people. However, their commitment to this issue was feeble. In my memory the only President of the United States who attempted to tackle this issue head-on was Jimmy Carter who was rejected by the electorate for a second term. The American people obviously did not share his values. It is some consolation that he recently received the Nobel prize for peace. We face a major battle to spread the message internationally that we have a moral obligation to deal with this issue.

I support what the Minister of State said about Oireachtas Members taking every opportunity to see the problem at first hand. In 1993 I was part of an observer group at the elections in Malawi. Those elections appeared to mark the start of a new world for the people of that country. The regime of Dr. Banda, who had ruled the country for almost 30 years, had come to an end and there was huge excitement and expectation as to how the introduction of democracy would make things better. Unfortunately, nine years later the country has gone backward rather than forward. Diseases such as AIDs are widespread, there is financial distress and a political situation which almost amounts to civil war. It is disappointing to see the hope disappearing.