Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 158: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the extent to which debt write off entered into by the major powers three years ago has been completed in accordance with the agreement; the main issues outstanding; if particular experiences have been learned from the exercise; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16122/09]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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The Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) was agreed by the G8 Countries at their Summit in Gleneagles in July 2005, with a focus on the cancellation of the heavy debt burden on developing countries. It was intended to supplement the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative which was launched in 1996 to reduce the debt burden of qualifying countries to sustainable levels.

The MDRI, which came into effect on 1 July 2006, provides for 100% relief on eligible debt from the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund for many of the poorest countries in the world, most of them in Africa. In 2007, the Inter-American Development Bank agreed to provide similar debt relief to the five poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The aim is to relieve these countries from the burden of servicing debt and assist them in making progress on the UN Millennium Development Goals, with the overall objective of halving global poverty by 2015.

Up to the end of March 2009, debt relief has been delivered to 26 countries under the MDRI. In addition, eleven countries have made good progress towards qualifying for MDRI relief, and another six have been identified by the World Bank as potentially eligible.

A recent review of debt relief by the Independent Evaluation Group at the World Bank concluded that it has enabled higher spending on countries' social programmes and poverty-reducing investments. However, it also noted the need to manage expectations of what debt relief can realistically achieve. The key lesson is that long-term debt sustainability ultimately relies on a country's broader success in building the institutions to support sustained economic growth.

The Government has strongly supported initiatives to ease or cancel the debt burden on developing countries. We are encouraged by the extent of the relief granted under both the HIPC and MDRI Initiatives. Importantly, Ireland's bilateral assistance to the developing world is exclusively in the form of grants rather than loans. Ireland's share of the total cost of debt relief provided by the World Bank under the MDRI is €58.64 million. The Government contributed this amount in full in 2006. Ireland has also contributed over €20 million towards the cost of implementing the HIPC initiative.