Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 164: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the steps he is taking to implement the findings of the recent report from the Hunger Task Force. [38477/08]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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The report of the Hunger Task Force was presented to the Taoiseach on 25 September at the United Nations in New York. It represents a year's work, commissioned by the Government, conducted by a group of eminent national and international experts. While recognising that hunger and food security is a complex area requiring a multifaceted response, the Report focused on three specific thematic areas which, if addressed, should make an effective contribution to reducing and eventually eliminating world hunger. These three thematic areas are:

Increase smallholder agricultural productivity in Africa;

Target maternal and infant undernutrition; and

Make hunger a priority at both national and international level and ensure that donor and recipient governments fulfil their commitments to its eradication.

I welcome this focused approach on these three thematic areas and I agree with the Task Force that progress in these specific areas will have a real impact. With the aim of moving the recommendations of the Hunger Task Force forward I am establishing a special unit within Irish Aid, to focus on agriculture and food security. I am also establishing a managerial task team to bring together the full range of expertise available within Irish Aid in the area of food security and related disciplines.

The first job of the food security and agriculture unit will be to carry out an audit of the work of Irish Aid which currently addresses food security across the programme. Based on that analysis, we will assess how best we can improve our performance across all of the three themes highlighted in the Report.

The commissioning of the work of the Hunger Task Force by the Government, before the current global food security crisis hit the headlines, was innovative and far sighted. The Report has been warmly welcomed, nationally and internationally. I can assure the Deputy that I intend to take the Report forward and ensure that Ireland can make a real difference, by our own efforts on the ground and by our influence internationally, to reduce the scourge of global hunger.