Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 26: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will establish an umbrella group to deal with individual or small group applications for overseas aid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34072/08]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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In the period 2006 to 2008, Irish Aid provided multi-annual support to Dóchas, the umbrella group for Irish development NGOs, amounting to €690,000. Dóchas works to maximise the impact of development NGOs. It promotes a coherent public approach on development issues by its members and helps build public awareness of development challenges. Dóchas plays an important role in building members' capacity to engage with policy issues at national and EU level.

Irish Aid also provides support directly to small and medium-sized NGOs through the Civil Society Fund and the Micro-Projects Fund. The total combined budget for these two grant schemes in 2008 amounted to some €41 million. Application forms and full details of these funding schemes are available on the Irish Aid website www.irishaid.gov.ie.

Currently, I have no plans to establish an umbrella group to deal with individual or small group applications for overseas aid. I believe it is essential that Irish Aid continues to appraise, approve, monitor and evaluate NGO projects, working in partnership with the NGOs, large and small.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 27: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the amounts of direct financial aid received by each developing country in each of the past five years under multilateral or bilateral programmes; the amount of debt write-off for each in the same period; the amount and nature of indirect aid throughout; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34245/08]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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For 2008 the Government has provided a total allocation of €769 million to Irish Aid. A further estimated €130 million will be spent by other Government Departments and through Ireland's allocation to the EU Development Cooperation Budget. This will bring Ireland's total expenditure on Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) to some €900 million, representing 0.54% of GNP on current estimates.

Ireland's ODA comprises both multilateral and bilateral contributions. Multilateral ODA consists of contributions channelled through multilateral and international organisations and these pooled contributions are not reported to Irish Aid on a country-specific basis. Bilateral ODA consists of contributions made directly by Ireland to developing countries, including contributions made through NGOs, missionary organisations and other bilateral partners.

Ireland provides assistance to over eighty countries, mainly to Least Developed Countries, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this regard, Ireland places particular emphasis on long term strategic assistance to nine Programme Countries — Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho, Malawi, Vietnam and Timor-Leste. These countries are amongst the poorest in the world and Ireland's assistance to them is directed primarily to the health, education rural development and governance sectors.

Comprehensive details of all assistance to our partner countries are set out in the Irish Aid Annual Report, which has been placed in the Dáil Library. I will ensure that a copy of the 2007 Annual Report is provided to the Deputy.

Ireland also remains closely engaged with the issue of alleviation of the debt burden on developing countries. Moreover, our bilateral assistance to the developing world is exclusively in the form of grants rather than loans. The Government's financial contributions to debt relief have concentrated on the two main international initiatives in this area, which are implemented primarily by the World Bank and the IMF. We have provided €20 million to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, towards reducing the debt burden of qualifying countries to sustainable levels. We have also contributed €58.64m to the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), to cancel the multilateral debt owed by many of the world's poorest and most indebted countries.