Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I move amendment No. 3:

To add after "aid programme":

notes that the OECD/DAC also said: 'the challenge for the Government is to reach these targets despite severe economic downturn and increased budgetary pressure'. That DAC also urged the Government 'to refrain from further budgetary action that would undermine this commitment';

notes the recent concession by Minister of State for overseas development, Deputy Peter Power, that decentralisation of Irish Aid from Dublin to Limerick had caused a loss of key personnel;

notes that Ireland has slipped back from progress towards its ODA commitments this year as a result of €195 million in combined cuts in February and April;

notes that despite the Government saying it is committed to meeting the UN target of spending 0.7% of GNI by 2012, it will, in fact, slip backwards from 0.58% in 2008 to a projected 0.48% this year after the February and April cuts;

notes that the serious slippage in ODA/GNI performance projected for 2009 has caused Irish development NGOs, as a sector, to suggest that it is now unlikely that Ireland will meet the Government's own interim target of spending 0.6% of GNI on ODA by 2010;

expresses concern that it sends a strange message for the Government to celebrate its ODA achievements while, at the same time, cutting back on programme areas where we have already made an investment;

regrets that Ireland's overseas development aid budget was disproportionately targeted for cuts, reducing the entire aid budget by 22% in the past ten months;

regrets the lack of transparency in the manner in which these cuts have been implemented;

regrets the statement attributed to the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Power, that he had sought to protect emergency funding and bilateral aid, which 'produces more results', in this year's budget;

reminds the Government that the work of Irish aid agencies and Irish missionaries are the cornerstone of the Irish public's support of the Irish Aid programme;

reminds the Government that the report of its Hunger Task Force in September 2008 noted that 'regardless of the current international economic climate, without both developed and developing countries acting on their commitments, hunger will not be reduced';

reminds the Government of the separate target, set out in the recommendations of the Hunger Task Force, of working 'towards an indicative target of 20% of its ODA to actions to alleviate and eradicate hunger';

urges the Government to publish detailed figures on all disbursements from Irish aid in this fiscal year, and to allow a comparison of these figures with those for the last fiscal year;

urges the Minister to set out how plans to redress the impact of decentralisation of Irish Aid to Limerick;

urges the Government to immediately stop the cuts and build up the programme so that Ireland actually meets its commitments instead of merely talking of them; and

calls on the Government to ensure that the next budget sees us meeting our commitments beyond 2012 and into the future.