Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the Senators for their contributions. I will start with ODA and percentage targets. As I understand it, the targets were set in 1973. Since then, there has not been a Government that has reached them. The highest point was reached in 2008 when we hit approximately 0.59%, or a monetary figure of €920.6 million. I regard this as an apolitical space because, throughout successive Governments, every political party and Independent in the Houses has acknowledged the need to ensure that, in the first instance, we recognise how official development assistance plays a key role in our foreign policy and impacts on the poorest countries. While there has been a 30% decrease in ODA since 2008 across a number of political mandates, there is a recognition that, in the past two years, we have tried to stabilise it.

We did stabilise it last year, and increased it. While a point was raised about a decrease in some of the bilateral funding and an increase in multilateral funding, the fact remains that, through our multilateral arrangements and relationships with the World Food Programme or the UN agencies, it still continues to create the necessary impact. The tyres are kicked on this policy by virtue of the DAC or the OECD report which gave us a clean bill of health.

There is one further point on the ODA as a percentage of GNP figures. Ireland is ranked ninth of OECD countries and seventh of EU countries. The countries ahead of us in the OECD list of countries include Norway. Its figure is 1.07. Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark and the UK are ahead of us in the sense that they have reached or surpassed the target. However, we are ninth in the rankings. The Netherlands, Finland and Switzerland are ahead of us but have not have reached the target and they are comparatively rich countries. We are, therefore, by any objective standard, doing quite well in terms of seeking to reach the target. However, we have not taken our eye off the ball. It has to be remembered that the target was set and successive Ministers, across the political spectrum, have reinforced the commitment to it. It is in the programme for Government, but what we have sought to do in the programme for Government is increase our level of assistance in monetary terms. However, we are not going to hit the 0.7% target. This is clear. Furthermore, the next Government, whatever its make-up in terms of party politics, will also not hit the 0.7% target. However, we must continue to try to stabilise the monetary element of it and increase it if we can. It would be necessary to pay out more than €1 billion in the current year if we were to hit the 0.7% target. This is not attainable given other demands on education and health services and so on.

On compliance and governance issues in respect of how we dispense the funding, the Ugandan experience was mentioned. We met the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade last week as part of the Estimates process. I had outlined previously at that committee that we are very satisfied that all of the checks and balances are in place on how our funding is dispersed. Although we have a bilateral relationship with Uganda, there has been a reduction in the amount of funding we have given to it. We are currently reviewing the programme. Since that event took place, we have recovered the money on behalf of the taxpayer and very clear checks and balances have been put in place.

We do not tie our aid, as others country do, to the purchase of Irish goods and services. We deliberately do not do this. When disbursing aid through, for instance, our NGOs, Irish Aid or the UN for stocks, we do not stipulate that particular Irish stocks must be bought. We require transparency and a chain of events to ensure we know where the money is going. We are satisfied with this approach. If we start tying aid to particular actions, we are leaving ourselves open to becoming a hostage to fortune. The reason it has worked so well for us historically, since Garrett FitzGerald first instigated an Irish aid programme, is because we have had an honesty in our approach to people. We have never come with an agenda.

At the same time, this does not mean that we cannot look at Africa as a continent with 1.1 billion people with which we can trade. We trade with countries such as Japan, where we have an ambassador and Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland representatives. We have bilateral relationships with eight partner countries in Africa. If we take one of the eight partner countries, for instance, Sierra Leone, Kenya or Nigeria, there is no reason we cannot, through ambassadorial or bilateral relationships, seek to trade with these countries as well. We have an Africa strategy. Every year we have an Ireland-Africa economic forum. I will dig out the statistics which I wrote down earlier. We have increased trade. In 2010, our trade on an Ireland-Africa basis was approximately €1.7 billion. In 2013, it went up to €2.3 billion. I may be plucking this figure from the air, but by 2020 there is the potential for €20 billion in trade, if I am not mistaken. It is €24 billion. We are absolutely right to examine and set this as a target.

There is not a Senator in this House who has not had some experience of a humanitarian visit to various countries. When at these refugee camps or when visiting particular areas where Irish Aid is involved, one might see a mother who may have travelled 200 miles with her children from south Sudan to Gambella. Looking at the children, one cannot but wonder how we can help to educate these children in order that they can become entrepreneurs and have access to health and educational services similar to ours. How can they become entrepreneurs? One way of looking at this is to share what we do best, through our innovation systems, with that growing number of people. The figure is more than 1.1 billion. There has been an increase of 2 million year on year in the number of people living in Ethiopia. It is about trading services as well as assisting in capacity building. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Senator Higgins mentioned the Alan Kerins project. Irish people are delivering excellent people on the ground through the Alan Kerins project and through GOAL, Gorta, Self Help Africa and Concern. We will continue to be committed to the development agenda and the humanitarian agenda. However, we must also focus on how we can trade more efficiently, that is, through mutually beneficial trade in a non-tied way in order that we can trade with what is a sleeping giant of a continent. We are lucky that we do not look at it from a homogenous point of view. We do not say that Africa is one continent with one people. We recognise the fact that Sierra Leone is different from South Africa which is different from Nigeria. We are lucky that we have relationships with all three of these countries and we must continue to look for trading opportunities with them.

I take the point Senator Burke made on humanitarian crises. To be fair to us, if one takes the humanitarian crisis in Syria - I have outlined some of the figures - or the Ebola crisis in west Africa as examples, we have been able, in a very reflexive way, to pivot towards these crises when they occurred by virtue of the fact that we have people on the ground. If one takes Gaza, for instance, which was mentioned, it is by virtue of the fact that we have a relationship through our office in Ramallah that we have been able to fund the humanitarian crises there. On Syria, much of the funding is divested through multilateral organisations because we do not have a bilateral relationship with it. A flexibility has been built into the Irish system by successive Governments to ensure Irish Aid is adequately funded in order that it can pivot its funding opportunities as the crises arise.

The issue of human rights was raised and I appreciate the points being made in respect of Nigeria, for instance. We have a bilateral relationship with Nigeria.

It would be easy for us to say we should not fund particular countries because of a human rights or governance record, or a lack thereof. Our view has always been that if we have a bilateral relationship we ensure the funding gets to those people who are most in need. The people who are most in need are sometimes not well served by their own governments, but at the same time they depend on us. The governance we have, the honesty we bring as a country to our relationships with various countries and our lack of a colonial history or baggage, by which I mean we have not gone out to colonise, allow us to influence human rights in a very subtle and discreet way, which we do over time. Ethiopia is one of our long-standing key partner countries, and Addis Ababa is the diplomatic capital of Africa. A recent visit by President Michael D. Higgins, who addressed the African Union, served as an opportunity to impart messages to the African Union that for the relationships to be equal they must be such that human rights becomes a key function or pillar in any African nation's governance. We do not do it with a sledgehammer but through subtle diplomacy, and this has allowed us to make progress over time.

The issue of climate change has been raised as have the sustainable development goals. Recently I visited Africa. If one looks at the work Irish Aid is doing there, through key partners on the ground and specifically at the work being done to assist farmers in Tigre, which was the scene of the famous famine of the early to mid-1980s, one can see how agricultural systems have come on greatly. One of the programmes in the area is on potato generation. This could all be compromised by climate change if there is a 2°C rise in temperatures globally. We take very seriously our role in negotiating the sustainable development goals in co-facilitation with Kenya. The reason we do so is because we are mindful of the relationships we have in the countries which are most affected by climate change. We know our people who work with people there, which brings an honesty, openness and transparency to how we will approach the negotiations. We are not weighed down with the baggage of having been a coloniser. We know exactly what it is like in the first instance and we are able to speak for those countries which will need Ireland to be at their back and be an honest broker in these associations throughout 2015.

Rather than specifically addressing every Member I have addressed general points. I hope I have adequately addressed the point on the percentage of GNP targeting and the issues of compliance and transparency with regard to Uganda and tied aid. I ask Senator O'Reilly to forgive me for interrupting her speech. I am conscious that Senators must leave to attend other meetings, and I wanted to ensure I was able to clarify the point in case she needed to leave, but she is still here. I hope I have generally spoken to the issue of climate change and the sustainable development goals. It is not for me to speak specifically to the points on population control in specific countries. We are very strong on gender equality and extremely strong on the issue of maternal health and nutrition as it is one of our priorities. One can see this in action in countries such as Sierra Leone and Ethiopia in particular. We are also extremely strong on issues such as fistula which, I am shocked to stay, still exists. Ethiopia has set targets for itself. The idea that in instances a pregnant woman cannot get to a centre in enough time to be able to give birth in a safe environment is, to my mind, shocking. We are working very hard with our partners to try to tackle these issues.