Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I welcome my colleague from Galway, Deputy Treacy, to the House and also welcome the Development Banks Bill. I am delighted that we are now providing for membership of the Asian Development Bank and including Mongolia under the remit of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. There are very serious issues here regarding our commitment to meeting the target of 0.7% of GNP by 2012.

I am fortunate to chair the Oireachtas sub-committee of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, which deals with overseas development aid. For many years, that committee has been dealing with the overseas aid issue, particularly concerning Africa. The committee, and indeed all Members of the Houses, were delighted that the Taoiseach announced our development aid targets in New York last September. He gave very specific targets for 2007, 2010 and 2012, which put Ireland in the top rank of donors worldwide. Most developing countries particularly welcome the fact that our aid is not tied aid, as is the case with many Western countries, some of which are more prosperous than Ireland. According to the OECD, Ireland's official aid programme is at the cutting edge of international development policy, particularly because the aid is not tied. There are challenges ahead but I hope we will always have quality aid. The committee has travelled to Africa to see at first hand some of the development programmes there. Our focus has been on Africa and in particular, on Ethiopia and Tanzania. I hope we will be able to further the UN millennium development goals because development is urgently needed.

The Government has now chosen two new programme countries in Asia, East Timor and Vietnam. This is very welcome and demonstrates how the programme has diversified. Ireland's experience of being a donor and its own development means that we have much to share with one of the world's newest countries, Timor-Leste. Membership of the Asian Development Bank will add another strand to Ireland's co-operation with the developing countries of Asia. The bank aims to promote social and economic progress in the Asian and Pacific regions and its development fund is particularly attractive. It lends at favourable rates to member countries with low per capita GNP, including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Ireland's participation in that fund will allow it to contribute to economic and social development in these countries and to enhance its understanding of their policies and needs.

I welcome the fact that a specific contribution is proposed for the bank's gender and development co-operation fund. Given that women constitute a majority of the poor and still experience low rates of literacy and high rates of maternal mortality in some countries, a special effort to promote the empowerment of women is welcome. Senator Mooney and I attended a conference on Africa in London during November and female empowerment was one of the issues raised there. It was interesting to note that in Rwanda, for example, almost half of the members of Parliament are women. This is an area of development focused on by the Asian Development Bank, in terms of its fund and its policy.

The governance co-operation fund is also a welcome and far-sighted project which aims to improve transparency, accountability and predictability in the administrations of the participating countries. This is very much in line with the emphasis on good governance in the Taoiseach's address to the Millennium Review Summit in New York in September. While this fund is good news, many issues have been raised regarding alleged corruption in some countries, particularly in Africa. Mr. John O'Shea of GOAL, has highlighted problems in this area, with specific reference to Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. He has raised serious concerns about democracy and human rights in these countries and has referred to a book written by Mr. Martin Meredith, entitled The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence. That book vividly describes corruption in African society. This has serious implications for Ireland because it is increasing its development aid budget enormously between now and 2012. Corruption has implications for where the development funding is directed. I am not one to argue that we should do nothing to assist a country because of corruption. However, as a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and a Member of this House, it behoves me to put on record that Ireland must look at issues that are not being addressed by certain African leaders, particularly in the countries just mentioned.

Africa has great potential for economic development but has been stunted by the predatory politics of certain elites, those who are in politics for personal gain. Such elites often precipitate violence against their own people for their own ends. The Nigerian academic, Claude Ake, in an essay on democracy and development in Africa argued that the problem was not so much that development has failed but that it was never really on the agenda in the first place. That sums up the style of certain leaders in some countries. While I put these concerns on record, they in no way take from what we have done in the past and plan to do in the future. I welcome the inclusion of countries in Asia in Ireland's aid programme and believe our objective of meeting the UN target of 0.7% of GNP will be furthered by the passing of this Bill.