Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. The title of the debate is particularly welcome. We are not talking about aid; we are talking about development, about which I am pleased. I am reminded of the old Oxfam quote: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for life." International development is what we should engage in. We experienced a famine 160 years ago and it is still in our memories many generations later. This makes it easier for us to understand the need for international development and aid. The number of people who go to bed hungry every night and the number who die annually from starvation in the developing world is far removed from the poverty experienced in this State. It is important that we support international development.

It is a landmark moment for development aid because all bar two countries - Austria and Luxembourg - made cuts to their aid budgets. While we may criticise Ireland for cutting its development aid budget, we must also consider that Germany, which has no budgetary problems, has not lived up to its aid commitments. Its contribution last year fell by approximately 1%. The European Commission recently stated that revenue from a proposed financial transaction tax should be set aside to fight poverty and climate change as an investment against global instability. France has set aside existing national financial transaction tax revenue for development and Germany's development Minister has also spoke in favour of the idea. What is Ireland's position on this issue?

While the target in the millennium development goals of cutting in half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water was reached in 2010, the target of improving people's sanitation has not been attained. This has wide ranging ramifications, not least in the case of disease. The UN estimates that poor water and sanitation can cost sub-Saharan countries up to 5% of GDP every year. However, water and sanitation comprised only 3% of the Union's total aid commitment between 2008 and 2010. What is Ireland's policy on this? Are we devoting enough aid in this area? Are Ireland and the EU focusing development aid in the right areas? It is concerning that, according to a European Parliament report last year, only 46% of European aid intended for developing countries goes to low income states, as mentioned by Senator O'Brien, while Turkey, a relatively rich country, is in the top five recipients of Commission aid. Surely this is not right. Can Ireland take a lead in highlighting this more?

Many NGOs argue that due to the recession so-called good aid such as long-term budgetary support is cut first while bad aid such as trade sweeteners remains. Some countries employ creative definitions of "aid", including the cost of repatriating illegal immigrants. Can Ireland draw more attention to this major issue? How does the EU stand over the promotion of democracy, human rights and engagement in development aid when a number of states in the region have engaged in widespread human rights violations resulting in high levels of poverty and dictatorship? Should Ireland push more strongly for disengagement from such states in the provision of development aid when violations take place? The UK Government said it would channel aid in new directions if recipient countries failed to meet four requirements: reduce poverty, adhere to human rights, demonstrate good financial management and show accountability to their citizens. Should the EU not have a similar policy instead of the current patchwork of policies? We have a common EU diplomatic service. Why not have more co-ordination of EU aid? We need to be much more assertive in this regard during our leadership of the Union, especially in the context of the misuse of Irish Aid development funds recently.

Can more business engagement in development aid be encouraged? It is interesting to consider how the private sector has turned to innovative ways to reach untapped markets. This relates more to development than aid.

In Kenya and Nigeria where power outages can last for days, Samsung has introduced solar-powered mobile telephones. Cameroon is overtaking Ireland as one of the consumers of Guinness. What about diverting aid to help start-up companies in developing countries? In that way aid can still become more sustainable. There appears to be a general shift. During the past decade multilateral and bilateral development banks have increased their financing of the private sector from €7.5 billion to more than €30 billion annually. A study of the International Finance Corporation and 30 similar institutions concluded that firms in developing countries need financing to expand their operations as well as better infrastructure and improved business regulations and skilled employees. Does it make sense for donor governments to support the public and private sectors in developing countries? Some would say "Yes" since development institutions are mostly self-funded, using repayments from their investments to support new projects. By contrast, aid to Government has to be funded every year. Could we see a shift to a situation where development is founded more on investing in businesses with a relatively small amount of capital along with advisory services to create economic activity that is ultimately self-financing? I think there should be more emphasis on this type of development. What has impressed me most is the title whereby the Minister of State is talking about international development rather than international aid. We are inclined to think of it as aid but international development takes one back to sustainability. Once we can do that it continues and that is a worthy objective.

I congratulate the Minister of State on what he is doing and I urge that we hold our resolve and maintain the standards we have reached.