Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the Government's assistance to humanitarian projects in Afghanistan; the number of allocations to projects that have been made; the NGOs in receipt of same; the sums that have been allocated; the monitoring mechanisms in place; and when such reports that have been presented to his Department will be presented to the Houses of the Oireachtas in full or summary form. [33495/05]

Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Since January 2000, Ireland has allocated over €28 million in funding for development and humanitarian programmes in Afghanistan. Ireland's funding to Afghanistan is delivered through a range of partners with a proven record of delivering assistance to those most in need and through mechanisms such as World Bank trust funds, designed to build capacity and to deliver essential services. Our partners are , inter alia , Christian Aid, Concern, GOAL, Halo Trust, Handicap International, Oxfam, Trócaire, the Red Cross family, World Vision, UNDP, UNICEF and the World Food Programme, WFP. The activities supported include primary education, nutrition and health, de-mining, election preparations and support.

Funding recipients are obliged to provide financial and monitoring reports to my Department on a regular basis. In 2004, Development Co-operation Ireland carried out a comprehensive external public expenditure review of Ireland's support to Afghanistan during the period 2000 to 2003. This evaluation reviews in detail Ireland's assistance to Afghanistan and outlines all payments made to partners over the period. The evaluators visited Afghanistan and had discussions with partners and recipients. The evaluation examined the effectiveness, cost efficiency and sustainability of Ireland's support. The report found that this support represented value for money for the Irish taxpayer and recommended that Ireland's policy of funding in Afghanistan should continue. A number of other recommendations were made and these are being implemented. The published report was laid before the House on 5 April 2005. A copy was sent to the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs on 11 April 2005. Since 2003, Ireland has continued to fund humanitarian and recovery programmes in Afghanistan. These are outlined in the tables below:

Ireland has also provided funding in 2004-2005 through the multi-annual programme scheme to NGOs working in Afghanistan, including Christian Aid Ireland, Concern, GOAL and Trócaire.