Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 70: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the assistance he will provide the Jubilee Debt Campaign; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34081/08]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland is closely engaged with the issue of alleviation of the debt burden on developing countries. The Government has provided considerable resources to initiatives designed to ease or cancel the debt burden. 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 major international initiatives on the issue. We have paid €20 million to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, towards reducing the debt burden of qualifying countries to sustainable levels. We have 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. Each of these initiatives is implemented by the World Bank and the IMF. The MDRI also involves the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Irish Aid maintains a close dialogue with Irish NGOs on the debt issue, but has not provided assistance to the Jubilee Debt Campaign, a British-based coalition of groups and organisations established to influence British Government policy on debt. There are no plans to provide such assistance. I strongly appreciate the work of NGOs in highlighting the issue of the debt burden. The Government remains fully committed to playing its part in tackling the issue urgently and effectively.