Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

Whatever about Senator Alex White congratulating the Government, when the Government congratulates itself, it smacks of a self-delusional, almost patronising and colonial attitude. It is not long since Ireland declared itself a republic and the Government should not engage in such behaviour but when parties are in Government too long, these habits creep in. The debate gives a sense of us all trying to keep ourselves happy and we are deluding ourselves regarding the protection of the environment and carbon credits and so on. The sum of €4.5 million for this development goal will not make a significant impact. This is our contribution while our overseas development aid budget is in excess of €900 million. I expected the debate to focus on the broader issue.

The diverging views that have emerged during the debate are interesting and no one's contribution should be dismissed whether reference was made to family planning or the misappropriation of UN funds. These issues should be investigated and evaluated further. If on behalf of the people the Government will spend almost €1 billion annually on ODA in years to come, it must be sure such abuse is not taking place. The recent focus on ODA has highlighted the issue of aid finding its way to corrupt officials in certain countries. They are being handed cheques to spend as they wish. It does not matter whether this relates to a corrupt African nation or a UN body which is accused of being very bureaucratic and top-heavy in administration.

The lifestyles of many of those who work for the development agencies is very good. We assume countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Mozambique are poverty stricken but that is not the case. One can have a good time living in these countries. Many of those working for development organisations have fine houses and swimming pools and it is important the issue of these organisations spending their allocations appropriately on the basis of the expectation of the Irish taxpayer or administratively should be debated. The taxpayer, for example, would not approve of coercion into forced sterilisation. Rather than shouting down Senator Mullen for raising this issue, it should be investigated further by the Government to ensure it is not taking place.

The issues raised regarding maternal death are incredibly important, including the medical facilities available in these countries and the lack of nurses and doctors. This lack is due to First World countries poaching them to work in their own hospitals and other health care facilities because they do not spend enough money to train enough personnel of their own. When one visits any hospital in Dublin, one will meet doctors and nurses from Nigeria, Mozambique, Sudan, Chad, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Pakistan. If they are here, they are not looking after their own people. A sum of €4.5 million is poor compensation for those countries considering we are stealing their health care workers. The Government must face up to this and stop clapping itself on the back because it is contributing to many of the problems experienced by Third World countries.

Much of our overseas aid is spent on armaments to support undemocratic regimes. The way these regimes spend this aid and abuse their own citizens by burning or shooting them or turning them into refugees results in a huge cost to those countries. We must face up to our responsibilities and discuss these issues during debates such as this. We could put forward proposals but we should not shout down any Member who raises an issue that might not necessarily fit with our ideology. Our best approach is to seek value for money for the ODA budget of €1 billion, examine where it is being spent and take the radical actions mentioned. This would include denying funding to regimes that might be stealing the aid and exercising the same quality control over this budget as would be exercised over departmental budgets to ensure the money is spent on the mothers and children who need this health care. We are discussing maternal deaths but neonatal and early childhood death rates are also significant in these countries.

Millennium development goal No. 6 concerns HIV-AIDS, which has ravaged sub-Saharan Africa to the extent that grandparents are rearing children with HIV simply because they have no access to antiviral treatment. Hepatitis B is another important issue in this respect. For hundreds of families who were lucky enough to be asylum seekers in this country, a cycle which had lasted 400 or 500 years of mothers passing hepatitis to their children was broken because the children were given antivirals when they were born. This basic and inexpensive treatment is freely available here. The same can be said in respect of vaccinations for illnesses such as measles, which used to cause havoc in this country. When spurious research published in the UK persuaded parents in the Dublin region to refuse MMR vaccine for their children, three children died and a number of others were left with nervous deformities. This is happening every day in parts of the world where children do not have access to vaccines rather than because of silly nonsense and some sort of neoliberal attitude that prefers natural methods to vaccination for children.

We should focus on these matters because they will make a huge difference to people's lives. The simplest steps that make the greatest difference are vaccination, retaining health care professionals and improving hygiene. Many of the hospitals in these countries lack electricity generators or proper sterilisation equipment. Even though €4.5 million is small change, it will go a long way, and the overall UN budget for all the millennium development goals is in excess of €1 billion. We need to ensure that money is well spent.