Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Seanad Éireann" and substitute the following:

"welcomes the recently announced aid increases of at least €200 million over the next three years, which will result in €1.8 billion being spent by Ireland on development assistance over the coming three years; and reaffirms Ireland's commitment to making progress towards the millennium development goals and to reaching the United Nations target of 0.7% of GNP".

I welcome the Minister of State with responsibility for overseas development aid to the House for this important debate. I thank our colleagues in the Labour Party for tabling the motion, even though there is an underlying political agenda in the text. I am sure the Minister of State will be able to respond to the latter in great detail.

I wish to reiterate what I said on a recent Order of Business, namely, that while it is fair and right that political charges should be levelled at any Minister of State, I deplore the more personalised attacks to which the Minister of State was subjected at the height of the tsunami disaster when he looked after his brief so admirably and with great commitment and was then pilloried for taking a couple of days off with his family between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The Minister of State has a young family and I do not believe anybody in the political arena would begrudge him a few days off with them. He was obliged to leave his family in the middle of their holiday in order to attend an important meeting. What was said about him went beyond formal political comment.

We are concerned here with statistics. In that context, the old cliché about statistics and damn lies arises. I am not suggesting that the motion contains anything that is an untruth. There is definitely no gainsaying the fact that at the UN in 2000, the Taoiseach committed Ireland to achieving 0.7% of GNP by 2007. This commitment was made with the very best of intentions. Like all Government commitments, it was made in the context of the phrase "as resources allow". However, the Taoiseach appears to have been hung out to dry in respect of this matter, the legacy of which the Minister of State is suffering. This is despite the fact that there are positive and encouraging signs that the Government is moving towards achieving the goal, if not by 2007 then shortly thereafter. It might be salutary for the House to know that in recent statistics that have come my way, 95% of worldwide financial assistance is from countries which are members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee. The list of countries that have achieved the 0.7% of gross national income target is very short. Denmark heads it, along with Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden. The next country on the list is Ireland, with 0.41% as a result of the battle the Minister fought with his Cabinet colleagues to ensure an increase in money terms for ODA in the budget.

For those who might pillory the Government for its alleged inactivity or failure to achieve its target, the reality is that Ireland is the fifth highest contributor to overseas development aid. Only a handful of countries have achieved this target. The world's two largest economies, the United States and Japan, only spent 0.15% and 0.2% respectively on aid. More than 500 million people will escape abject poverty, 250 million will no longer go to bed hungry and 30 million will be saved if rich nations double their development aid over the next decade, according to a UN-sponsored report. The report, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, was commissioned by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, and will be presented to the G8 meeting of industrial nations in July and to world leaders at the UN General Assembly, two months later. Professor Sachs eloquently states:

The world continues to overlook the silent tsunamis and deaths from malaria which take every month the number of people that died in the Asian tragedy. Lifting aid spending would enable countries to meet the millennium development goals to combat poverty, disease and hunger that all nations agreed to at the UN Summit in 2000.

He says the goals are not utopian, but are eminently achievable. He lays out plans for achieving these goals by setting deadlines for specific, often simple, projects that experts say have been proven to work, rather than just calling for scattershot aid. Ireland could not be accused of that. I suggest that its ODA budget and the manner in which it is implemented is focused and efficient and is making a real difference in those areas where it is being spent.

One of the more significant decisions taken in recent months is that the Minister for Finance has agreed to a multi-annual commitment of €60 million in the current year, €65 million next year and a further €65 million in 2007. The Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, is owed a thumbs-up for this initiative. I agree with the Minister of State that the restoration of the multi-annual funding arrangement was a key priority identified by those involved in the development sector. Significantly, the three-year arrangement is not capped and there is a commitment from the Government to improve on these amounts if Exchequer resources are available. In real terms the total increase over the three years will be a minimum of €190 million. I agree with the Minister of State's analysis that this contribution will, by 2007, put Ireland within striking distance of the target figure of 0.7% of GNP.

Considering the competing claims from the health and education sectors in particular, I believe this to be a generous contribution. I also want to put on the record a quotation from UNICEF. Ms Maura Quinn, executive director UNICEF Ireland, warmly welcomed the allocation when she said:

This ever-growing commitment by the Irish Government reflects the growing need for a greater response internationally to escalating humanitarian issues. It also reflects our prosperity as a national and our unstinting commitment to supporting development countries in greatest need.

The Minister of State can stand proud over his record in office so far. I have known him for some time and am aware of his knowledge of and commitment to this vulnerable area of Government expenditure. If this is how he has started this part of his mandate, I have no doubt that by 2007 when he is completing it, we will be very close to the 0.7% target.