Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

I move:

That Seanad Éireann acknowledges and welcomes international endorsement of the Government's overseas aid programme.

Much of the debate on the overseas aid budget is concentrated on the commitment to reach the target of 0.7% of gross national product by 2012. Sweden, when it experienced economic difficulty in 1992 and had to consider restructuring its banking system after its failure, decreased its overseas aid budget to less than what it had aspired to. However, it increased its contribution in subsequent years and it is now regarded as an example to other countries.

Our historic link with overseas aid is related to our experience with famine. One of the most telling comments during the Famine of the 1840s was that of Lord Trevelyan, the Under-Secretary to the Treasury in charge of famine relief. In 1849, after he had closed down the soup kitchens, relief works and all forms of aid to those left destitute by the Famine, he wrote a letter to a colleague stating Ireland should be left to "the operation of natural causes". This was basically a death sentence for the entire Irish population and an admission that those who would live would live and that those who could not survive would be left to their own devices and would perish. They perished in their millions; figures vary depending on which book one reads. Cecil Woodham-Smith's book, The Great Hunger: Ireland: 1845-1849, a very authoritative account of the famine published in the 1960s, states that 1 million to 1.5 million people perished and that 1 million to 1.5 million emigrated. It depends on the figures, but when one is talking in millions one does not focus on the personal circumstances of the individuals concerned.

The emigration that followed the Famine continued for generations until a decade or so ago. Ireland is unique in that for every two people born in this country, one has emigrated. Consequently, there is a diaspora of 40 million people of Irish descent in the United States, and there are more in Argentina, New Zealand and Australia.

It is because of the Famine that the Irish, be it through the Government or their own generosity, insist on helping those most in need. This is why we target our aid at our most destitute partner countries. Zambia, which I visited recently, is an example. Some of our learned friends in the Opposition have said we should legislate to ensure the Government will spend 0.7% of gross national product on overseas development aid. I pointed out what Sweden did during its economic crisis. However, I am open to other ideas and if the Opposition would like to propose that a voluntary levy be introduced whose proceeds the Government could put towards the overseas aid budget, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility.