Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the subject of foreign aid. I ask the Leader to call the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to the House for a debate. As the months and years go by in these times of austerity, the latest issue concerns chemotherapy. The Members present may know someone with cancer. Can they imagine having cancer and having to pay ¤75 per dose of chemotherapy - not per day, but per dose? Remember "Prime Time" and the lady carrying her son up the stairs. Remember the number of times I have asked whether we can ring-fence a couple of million euro as a budget for paediatric home care. Remember the child in Celbridge who has Down's syndrome and who is down to a day and a half a week.

I remind the House of the recent scandal in Uganda in which ¤4 million went missing. It went into somebody's bank account and it has been proven this was fraudulent. We gave Uganda ¤33 million in 2010 and, in the same year, the Ugandan Government spent $740 million on six very smart fighter jets - I cannot even pronounce their name, but they are some type of nuclear fighter jet. That $740 million was spent on fighter jets while Irish Aid gave ¤33 million to the Ugandan Government, of which at least ¤4 million was used fraudulently.

Let us go back to Bertie Ahern and our reputational interest. He was right in those times of rich and plenty to put Ireland up on the world stage and he was right to think of our reputational interest. Today, however, we have to think of our citizens. Each and every Senator is meeting people month by month, week by week, who are in need and desperation, people who are about to default on their mortgages, with all of the emotional and financial stress they must suffer. We plan to spend ¤624 million on foreign aid in 2013, which represents 0.53% of GDP. Perhaps we could begin to think of shaving this down to 0.5% in 2013 and forget the 0.03%, which would save approximately ¤24 million. I will let Members put that ¤24 million in their pockets for the next three days and imagine what they might do with it. Ten years ago, Africa received seven times the amount that was given to Europe under the Marshall Plan following the Second World War. To go back to my 0.5% idea, those Members who are interested in our standing in the United Nations and in our reputational interest will be interested to know that we are still perhaps the ninth or tenth per capita charity giver of foreign aid in the world. As a matter of urgency, will the Leader grant us a debate on foreign aid in the new year? Can we make plans for the next five years until we get our own country ship-shape? Charity begins at home.