Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 164: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the extent to which promised aid in terms of debt write off has been delivered to the various countries; if delivery has been completed in full; the donors still outstanding; the extent of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23941/08]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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There are two main international instruments which address the problem of the debt burden in the developing world, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). The HIPC Initiative, which was launched in 1996 and strengthened and enhanced in 1999, seeks to reduce the debt burden of qualifying countries to sustainable levels but does not entail cancellation. Progress on the implementation of HIPC is slow but positive and to date US$49 billion in debt-service relief has been approved for 33 countries, 27 of them in Africa. Eight additional countries are eligible for relief but have not yet reached their decision points. Ireland has contributed €30m towards the cost of implementing HIPC. A further contribution of €6m has been pledged by Ireland towards HIPC debt relief and it is expected this will be paid later this year.

The Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), agreed by the G8 Countries at Gleneagles in July 2005 and which came into effect on 1 July 2006, provides for 100% relief on eligible debt from the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund to many of the poorest and most indebted countries in the World. Most of these countries are in Africa. The initiative is intended to help them advance toward the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are focused on halving poverty by 2015 by freeing up resources that would otherwise have been used to service their debt burden. In 2007, the Inter-American Development Bank also decided to provide similar debt relief to the five poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

All countries that reach the completion point under HIPC, as well as those with yearly per capita income below US$380 and outstanding debt to the three institutions at end-2004, are eligible for the MDRI. To date 25 countries have benefited from relief at a cost of approximately $37.6 billion. The total cost of implementing MDRI is estimated at US$47.9 billion. Ireland's share of the total cost of the MDRI debt relief to be provided by the World Bank is €58.6m. As a gesture of support and to underline our strong commitment to 100% debt relief for the poorest countries, this amount has already been paid over in full in 2006.