John Perry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 65: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the likelihood of achieving the millennium development goals, within the envisioned timescale; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19553/06]

Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland attaches the highest importance to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were adopted by the United Nations in 2000. We have incorporated them as the overarching framework of the Irish Aid programme. The Goals, which include halving the proportion of people in extreme poverty and reducing child mortality by two-thirds by the year 2015, correspond to our focus on reducing poverty and supporting the provision of basic services to the world's poorest people.

Deputies will be aware that the United Nations Summit meeting last September conducted the first major review of progress towards the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. The review concluded that some progress is being made, particularly in Asia. However, concern was expressed at the uneven progress in Africa.

The Summit unanimously acknowledged the MDGs as the international framework for development, together with the Monterrey Consensus and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. The Summit's recognition of the need to accelerate progress towards the MDGs and to make progress on aid effectiveness and on debt relief was encouraging. I was particularly pleased by the acknowledgement of the special needs of Africa, which has long been the main focus of Ireland's aid programme.

Ireland worked in the lead-up to the September meeting to build the necessary support among fellow donor countries and to restore momentum both towards the achievement of the MDGs and towards strengthening the United Nations system.

Deputies will recall that during the meeting the Taoiseach announced that Ireland has pledged to increase our Official Development Assistance so as to reach the target of 0.7% of GNP by 2012, three years earlier than the agreed EU deadline of 2015. The timetable we have set ourselves places Ireland in the forefront of donors worldwide.

I believe that, if the other major donors make equivalent commitments, and the developing countries themselves play their part, the Millennium Development Goals are indeed achievable within the timescale envisaged. I can assure the Dáil that Ireland will continue to play its part in this regard.