Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

We have gone beyond that, thankfully. I welcome the comprehensive background detail that the Minister of State has given the House. He reminded the House that when the Asian Development Bank was established "Ireland was not in a position to join and put in our financial support". Ireland would have liked to have contributed to many of the international efforts which were made 20 or 30 years ago, but the Governments of the time did not consider that the country was in a position to afford to do so.

This legislation needs to be considered in the context of the substantial expansion of the Irish development aid programme. The multilateral element of that programme, which is primarily administered by the Department of Finance, has always been a significant, if less noticed, aspect of it. It is also dealt with by the World Bank and various other regional banks like the Asian Development Bank. It is important that Ireland, like other countries, is pulling its weight fully by contributing to such banks, especially now that it has a per capita income that, by any standards, places it among the wealthiest countries in the world. The Minister of State made it clear that Ireland is participating in this process for a mixture of reasons. It is clear that we are developing our economic links with Asia as part of the Asia strategy. While it is important that we assist poor countries to develop, we can also compete for contracts, etc., and thereby deepen our involvement in what is easily the most rapidly developing part of the world.

It has been made clear to us over the past 12 months in a particularly forcible manner that Asia is one of the regions of the world that is most prone to natural disasters. The tsunami that affected many coastal regions of Asia very badly just after last Christmas was followed this year by the aftermath of the earthquake in Kashmir. It is clear that it makes sense for Ireland to support the Asian Development Bank at this time, so that it can assist and co-operate with those who are dealing with some of the most acute problems in the world. It has been mentioned that €8.4 million will be allocated to the bank over some years. That is by no means an exorbitant contribution, particularly in light of this country's expanding budget. When one's budget is increasing, there is a danger that one will start to spend money on things which are very much less than ideal. We can be assured that the expenditure of the money we are providing in this instance will be well vetted and supervised by the institution to which we are contributing under this Bill.

Mongolia is one of the countries that is being assisted by the European Union's outreach to parts of the former Soviet Union which are adjacent to Russia. Such regions are in something of a limbo in organisational terms. When one thinks of Mongolia, one tends to think of horses galloping across the plains. One occasionally hears in political debate that a certain Minister — no name needs to be provided — is to the right of Genghis Khan. We should bear in mind that the Great Mogul, who came from Mongolia, was one of the great contributors to Indian civilisation, so we are talking about civilisation as well.

The delegation of authority is correct. Debates like this are useful from time to time to bring us up to date with developments in this area, such as the various bodies to which this country contributes. I suggest that resolutions on such matters should not be taken in the House without debate — they should be debated so that Senators can focus on the multilateral contributions being made through the Department of Finance.

I enormously welcome the Government's real commitment, as shown in the recent budget, to increasing its level of overseas development aid. A great deal of progress has been made over the past 30 years in this regard. As I recall, in 1992 the level had fallen to 0.16% of GNP which was roughly at the level of the United States which usually comes at the bottom of the list. It then rose to somewhere between 0.25% and 0.3% in the late 1990s. For most of the term of this Government it has been running at 0.4%. This year it will be 0.47% and next year it will be 0.5%.

The difference between now and earlier times — I hope my friends and former colleagues in the Department of Finance will not be offended by this — is that the Department and Minister for Finance seem to be fully on board on this occasion, which is vital. It is not enough for the Minister for Foreign Affairs or even the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach to be fully on board. On this occasion the Minister for Finance has come from being Minister for Foreign Affairs so he has first-hand experience of this programme to a greater extent than some of his predecessors may have had. I have a real confidence this time that the commitment will be adhered to and that is very important.

I wish to make one other point on the delegation. I just had a little smile, because of the legislative difficulties we have had to seek a time extension as we were unable to make timely repayments when required. This, of course, has been the besetting sin of the United States vis-À-vis the United Nations and certain other bodies. Certainly it would be good if we became members of the prompt payment category.

I will conclude on a matter discussed at the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service. Part of the decentralisation programme involves the development aid division of the Department of Foreign Affairs being located in Limerick. It has been pointed that there has not been a significant number of volunteers. I did express some little surprise that people, I speak as an ex-Department official, are happy to be posted to Lagos, Lesotho and Lusaka but not to that exceptional hardship post of Limerick. I appeal to officials to look at the issue again. This is a relatively compact country and with all due respect Limerick, is not Outer Mongolia. The Government has made clear financial commitments in this area. I do not think there is any danger with the division being located in Limerick that somehow or other the case for funds will go by the board. There is no merit in that argument.