P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 40: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he is satisfied that the scope and quality of assessments of the effectiveness of humanitarian aid are as rigorous and robust as those assessments carried out on development aid; his plans to extend, deepen and improve assessments of humanitarian aid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34170/08]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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Irish Aid's support for humanitarian action is provided through a variety of organisations which are responding to emergency needs on the ground, including multilateral organisations such as UN agencies and the Red Cross/Red Crescent.

All of our multilateral partners maintain dedicated evaluation functions. These plan and implement rigorous evaluation work programmes. The reports of these evaluations provide Irish Aid with valuable information about the quality and effectiveness of the work co-funded by Ireland. Moreover, in the contracts with NGOs, evaluation requirements are specified, including an obligation to furnish Irish Aid with the reports of any internal evaluations carried out.

Notwithstanding the rigour of the evaluation work carried out by Irish Aid's partners, Irish Aid also commissions its own evaluations of humanitarian assistance funding. In recent years, for example, we carried out Value for Money reviews of our support to Afghanistan and to the Tsunami disaster. In addition, evaluations of humanitarian assistance initiatives are being included in the annual work plans of Irish Aid's Emergency and Recovery section, as well as the Evaluation and Audit Unit.