Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate him on his grasp of this brief for which he has a natural aptitude. That is clear from his speech, which is one I will read again because I am not well informed as to the amount of work on overseas development aid being done on our behalf by the Minister of State. Perhaps we should become more aware of the contribution Ireland is making towards the eradication of poverty and combating HIV-AIDS in these countries.

This debate is timely because the forthcoming elections will lead to the creation of a new European Parliament and Commission. During the Irish Presidency the objectives of overseas development aid were to be looked at to ascertain their effectiveness and whether there is value for money in terms of how it is spent in the recipient countries. The Commission has been invited to monitor this area and to take a leadership role on the millennium goals. My level of knowledge of these goals was so lacking I had to undertake some research.

The purpose of the millennium goals is to eradicate poverty and hunger, to give better overall global primary education, to reduce child mortality, to aim for gender equality, to improve material health, to combat HIV-AIDS, malaria and other such diseases, to create an environment to help the production of resources and to develop a global partnership, in other words, co-operation between all member states for development aid. These objectives were set out in 2002. How have we developed them and how effective has implementation been in these countries? The Irish Presidency has highlighted areas that should be looked at and has called on the EU to question the effectiveness of these objectives. We hope to have a review of them by 2005. It is an area in which I will become more interested given the work done by the Minister of State at conferences and meetings throughout Europe to highlight and implement these objectives.

The Minister of State outlined his work programme for dealing with African-Caribbean and other states in regard to economic partnership agreements. That is very important, especially given that issues such as conflict, peace building, and trade were discussed under these agreements. It re-emphasises the Government's commitment, as part of the Irish Presidency, to reducing the debt burden of the developing world.

I would like to have attended the conference in Dublin on breaking the barriers in the area of AIDS in Europe and central Asia and how best to make progress among governments, NGOs and the United Nations. Sometimes there is a perception that the aid Ireland and other countries give to developing countries is not going to the right places and that, perhaps, those implementing the programmes are not getting value for money. I ask the Minister of State to look at that issue with a view to closing the gap between what we are doing and what will be the external policy after the draft constitution becomes the new treaty for Europe. I congratulate the Minister of State on the work he has done and wish him well with the eradication of poverty and the combating of AIDS.