David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House for a very important discussion on international development.

I strongly disagree with the previous speaker, Senator Ó Domhnaill, on his call to cut funding to international aid. That would be a retrograde and wrong step. I also dislike the words look after "our own". Of course, we should look after our own citizens and we make best efforts to do so. Poverty in the State is a problem and there are far too many across the island of Ireland who live in poverty. We have a responsibility to address all of these issues but, equally, we as human beings have a responsibility to ensure, where people have no food at all, where people are going hungry and where people are dying, that we do our best to be part of an international response to ensure that these people get the help and assistance that they need. In fact, in the history of this country, if we want to look back on it, there was a famine and Ireland needed international support. There is a responsibility on us, notwithstanding the considerable problems and the economic crisis in the State, to maintain the levels of funding for international aid while looking to ensure, for example, that there are more progressive taxation systems to look after, as was the previous speaker put, "our own".

We all are conscious of the significant inequalities and injustices which exist in the world, and the considerable poverty and deprivation which exists in the poorer parts of the world, and international development is a crucially important area. Many of these inequalities are not historical legacies. They also are structural and, ultimately, it will take considerable domestic political changes in many countries and internationally to tackle such inequalities. There is a responsibility on big international organisations, such as the United Nations and the World Bank, to play a much more positive role in what happens in Third World countries. One of the areas where I agree with Senator Ó Domhnaill is that many of these countries see their natural resources raped by multinational corporations, and that is adding to the problems of these countries. It is one of the reasons there is such suffering in these countries. No doubt there is a need for a political focus and structural focus on all of these issues as well. Having said that, I also believe that international aid, when clearly focused and adequately monitored, can make a major difference. Of that there can be no question.

One specific question the Minister of State might be able to answer relates to the area of grant and foreign aid to aid agencies. There may be scope for some of those agencies to work together more collaboratively and he might outline his own thoughts on how that can be achieved. Where there are multiple aid agencies doing similar work in similar countries, I am sure that money can be saved if there was greater collaboration among those agencies.

We are having this debate because last week Irish Aid launched a new policy paper entitle, "One World, One Future: Ireland's policy for International Development". This is, basically, a review of the 2006 White Paper. Since that first Irish Aid paper was launched in 2006, there is a need to have this reviewed, and I would support that.

In this new policy paper, the Government outlines that its main focus will be on three goals: reduced hunger, sustainable development and inclusive economic growth, and better governance, human rights and accountability. I welcome the focus of Irish Aid on these core development issues. However, there must be a holistic all-party all-government approach to them and the focus must on the core drivers of institutional causes of hunger, poverty, inequality and repression.