Seanad debates
Wednesday, 26 November 2003
Overseas Development Aid: Motion.
As I stated, the CGD-FP commitment to development index rates development aid under various categories rather than just focusing on overall financial allocations. For example, under "peacekeeping", we rank only 9th out of 21, despite our proud record in this area. Our score was less than half that of Greece. Admittedly, this is because Greece sent some 2,000 troops to the Balkans, which was way in excess of what it would have been expected to send. If the scoring is to be conducted purely on the basis of numbers, as it was, it is a little unfair to Ireland considering the size of its Defence Forces and the number of personnel we are able to contribute. There was a suggestion that under-investment in terms of our Defence Forces may hurt us.
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