Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 144: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the relationship between the Interdepartmental Committee on Development and the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. [3684/08]

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The White Paper on Irish Aid included a commitment to establish a new Inter-Departmental Committee on Development to strengthen coherence in the Government's approach to development and to make best use of the expertise and skills available across the public service. I am pleased to say that, in line with that commitment, an Inter-Departmental Committee on Development has been established. It has met three times under my chairmanship. The next meeting will take place at the end of February.

The Committee aims to strengthen coherence on development policy across Government. Development co-operation does not take place in isolation from other Government policies and the need for greater coherence in policies across sectors that affect developing countries is recognised. Examples of issues that are vital to the developing countries include trade, climate change and debt relief. Government Departments are represented on the Inter-Departmental Committee by senior level officials who are actively engaging in the work. Two Sub Groups of the Committee have been established, one to look at developing a more coherent policy in our relationships with Multilateral Organisations and the second focusing on making best use of the expertise and skills available across the public service in our development aid programme. The Committee will report annually to the Minister for Foreign Affairs outlining its activities and making recommendations as appropriate.

My colleague Dermot Ahern T.D., Minister for Foreign Affairs and I are deeply conscious of the need to keep members of the Oireachtas informed of and engaged with the work of the overseas aid programme. The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs has played a key role in examining and debating a wide range of development related issues. A number of visits to Programme countries have been made by the Chair and members of the Committee. I welcome the Committee's engagement with the aid programme and hope that it will increase in importance as the programme expands.

A major review of the management of the Irish Aid programme is currently underway. The aim of the review is to ensure that the systems, structures, procedures and staffing of Irish Aid can deliver a high quality aid programme as funding expands towards reaching the target of 0.7% of GNP target by 2012, as committed to by the Taoiseach. It is hoped that the review will be completed this Spring.