Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 168: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if the Government is supporting humanitarian aid programmes in Iraq; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6828/06]

Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has committed itself to providing humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people. Since 2003, Ireland has delivered over €6.5 million to meet the immediate emergency humanitarian needs of some of the most vulnerable groups in that country. Funding has been delivered through key non-governmental partners such as Concern, GOAL and Trócaire and through UN and international agencies such as the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNOCHA, and the Red Cross family. Funding was also delivered to the AMAR International Charitable Foundation for health care programmes to assist the Marsh Arab population of southern Iraq, which suffered considerably under the former regime.

While the security situation in Iraq has greatly increased the difficulty for those working in the humanitarian field, the Government remains committed to funding humanitarian programmes of the United Nations and of international and non-governmental agencies, which can be delivered in this challenging environment.

Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 170: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on whether the current threatened drought in southern Somalia is a powerful indictment of the international community, both states and personalities, that engaged with the Somali famine in 1991 but have since stayed inactive as the Somali people have sunk into crisis and the condition of a failed state. [7004/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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A number of countries in the Horn of Africa region, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, have been suffering from prolonged drought and are in food crisis. It is estimated that some 5.5 million people have been affected, including 1.4 million in Somalia. On 2 February 2006 the UN Secretary General appointed Mr. Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway, as his special humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa. Mr. Bondevik will work with the United Nations system, the governments of the affected countries, the donor community, non-governmental organisations and other civil society organisations to ensure effective humanitarian action and tackle the root causes of chronic food insecurity.

In response to the current crisis, the Irish Government has recently announced a humanitarian assistance funding package of over €5 million, of which over €1 million has been specifically earmarked for Somalia and a further €1.5 million is for regional responses. The organisations being supported are the World Food Programme, UNICEF, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Trócaire and Concern.

Almost €3 million in emergency and recovery funding was provided to a range of non-governmental organisations and UN agencies for programmes in Somalia in the 2004-2005 period. Sectors assisted included mine clearance, health care, primary education, reintegration of returning refugees, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, DDR, of former combatants, and mine risk education.

Despite Somalia's major continuing difficulties, positive developments should not be ignored. After almost 15 years of civil war in Somalia, the successful conclusion of the Somalia national reconciliation conference, sponsored by the regional organisation IGAD, resulted in the creation of the transitional federal institutions, charter, parliament, president and government, with a five year mandate, 2004-09. Ireland and the EU provided strong political and financial support to the national reconciliation conference.

President Abdullahi Yusuf was elected on 10 October 2004, the transitional federal government was inaugurated in December 2004 and the formal relocation to Somalia of the transitional federal institutions began in June 2005. Problems arose because the speaker of the Parliament and a number of MPs moved to Mogadishu, while due to continuing insecurity there, the Government moved to the relative safety of the city of Jowhar. However, the transitional government appears to have been gathering strength since September 2005. The faction leaders based in Mogadishu have become increasingly marginalised and a significant number of Mogadishu-based MPs, including the speaker and his deputies, now support the government. A special session of the Somali Parliament is due to be held in Baidoa on 26 February 2006 and all MPs are expected to attend.

Ireland and the EU strongly support these recent positive developments in Somalia. The EU aims to achieve the overall goal of establishing peace and stability in Somalia through major strategies. These are: supporting the progressive installation and operation of the legitimate transitional federal institutions; encouraging reconciliation, democracy and state building at all levels; taking a lead role in the international community's engagement in the reconstruction of Somalia; and addressing the threat of militant Islam.