Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for the work he is doing in this area, which is extremely important. A total of €600 million will be spent in 2015. In recent years we have had very good value for money for this expenditure, and we will continue to do so because the money allocated is very carefully managed and delivers very good results. The key areas where Ireland makes a huge contribution are education, health care and the development of agriculture in the particular countries where we contribute and provide financial assistance.

I have visited a number of areas, including in Kenya, Chad and Gaza, and I am very concerned about how little progress has been made. I was in Chad in March 2008 and visited Goz Beïda and Am Bache. The rainy season there is in June, and between March and June 56,000 tonnes of food had to be brought in to feed 500,000 people for four months. The nearest port is 2,500 km away and the choice was to bring the food through Sudan to the east, Cameroon to the west or Libya to the north. This is the type of challenge faced by aid agencies and the UN in trying to meet demands, which sometimes we do not see. More than 500,000 people were in the refugee and internally displaced camps at that stage in 2008 and very little has changed in the area since then.

What frightens me is how little progress is being made in the control of arms and ammunition in the area, because if these were controlled many other issues would also be controlled. This is where the international community is falling down. We are not taking any action against the countries selling to the various interest groups. The arms trade throughout the world generates huge profits for a very small number of people, but a huge number of people suffer as a result. We should begin to examine this. Should we, at international level, clearly identify to countries that while we make a contribution to help countries to develop educational, health and agricultural systems, this progress is being restricted by other countries which contribute arms to these areas? When I was in Chad we filmed 17 hours of footage and condensed it to 15 minutes, which I use in schools. Everyone there carries a gun or a machine gun. When I was there more than 10,000 young people under 18 carried machine guns. This creates restrictions and causes problems for aid agencies. When I was there, 85 four-wheel-drive vehicles had been confiscated from aid agencies by armed rebels. The aid agencies must work to ensure they do not get into conflict.

The enormous contribution of Irish aid workers clearly stands out. The contribution of the Irish Army is also interesting. A report to the European Parliament stated that the Irish troops contributed more in Chad in six months than the French Army, with no disrespect to it, had contributed over the previous 20 years. The Irish Army's approach was to get people working together as opposed to a confrontational approach.

At all times we must keep in mind that when we give support to the various aid agencies and groups we should ensure the moneys are properly spent and that we get value for money. It is also important that we consider any structures which are already in place. Rather than developing new structures and providing funding for new agencies to go to an area, we should try to work with existing structures. The reason I have information about Kenya - I must be careful when I speak about the country, as other Members of the Oireachtas have got into difficulty on the issue - is that a member of my family works there. She is working in a school with only 18 teachers for 1,340 students, which means a pupil-teacher ratio of 1:70. To place a teacher there for an entire year would cost only €1,200. I have suggested that companies should come on board and, rather than giving money to an aid agency, sponsor a teacher, a nurse or someone who can develop agriculture in an area, so there would be a direct link to the money. We should begin to develop this.

I thank the Minister of State for the work he is doing, and long may it continue. I also thank all of the aid agencies and the officials at the Department for the wonderful work they do.