Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 354: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if, in relation to the UN financing for a development meeting in Doha in November 2008, his views on supporting a proposal tabled by the Norwegian Government, in the matter of the negotiations of the text for the UN FFD outcome document, which refers to the legitimacy of debts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40739/08]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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I look forward to representing the Government at the Doha International Conference on Financing for Development, which takes place from 29 November to 2 December 2008. The Conference will review the implementation of commitments made at the UN Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey in 2002. Under the Monterrey Consensus, developing countries agreed to introduce sound economic and social policies, improve governance, eradicate corruption and create a domestic regulatory environment aimed at the development of the private business sector. For their part, the industrialised countries committed to increasing the levels of overseas development assistance, improving market access for developing country exports, using technology transfer to improve the impact of foreign direct investment, and relieving the heavy burden of debt on developing countries.

The challenge at Doha will be to build on the international consensus on development against the background of the current international economic downturn. Ireland is playing its part in the preparation of the conference, and of the draft outcome document. Among the issues under discussion is the debt burden. Norway has proposed that, in establishing predictable debt resolution procedures, the international community needs to learn from the past by looking at the legitimacy of existing claims, based on how loans were given. We are discussing this proposal with Norway and our other colleagues at the United Nations in New York.

In general, the Government supports the development of an international consensus on responsible lending and borrowing procedures and I welcome the dialogue which the World Bank has opened with civil society groups and others on the complex issues involved.

Ireland has strongly supported initiatives to ease or cancel the debt burden on developing countries. Importantly, Ireland's bilateral assistance to the developing world is exclusively in the form of grants rather than loans. The Government has also provided very significant resources for the two main international instruments to address the problem, the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) and the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The MDRI came into effect on 1 July 2006, and provides for cancellation of eligible debt from the World Bank, the African Development bank and the International Monetary Fund for many of the world's poorest and most indebted countries. Ireland's share of the total cost of debt relief provided by the World Bank under MDRI is €58.64 million. The Government contributed this amount in full in 2006. Ireland has also contributed over €20 million to the HIPC initiative, which is implemented by the World Bank and the IMF, with the objective of reducing the debt burden of qualifying countries to sustainable levels.

At Doha, Ireland will work with our partners to ensure that lessons are learned from these efforts to relieve and cancel the debt burden on developing countries, in order to free up resources for the alleviation of poverty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. It is essential that the successes to date are not undermined by further irresponsible lending or borrowing.