Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 53: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on whether the Millennium Development Goals will be met by 2015; and his further views on the issues that will be the most pressing, beyond that date, in terms of the eradication of poverty. [31752/09]

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 67: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on whether progress on achieving the Millennium Development Goals by the target year of 2015 is being made at the requisite speed. [31751/09]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 53 and 67 together.

The eight Millennium Development Goals, adopted by Heads of Government at the Millennium Summit in 2000, provide the framework for international economic and social development over fifteen years, to 2015. Most importantly, they represent a series of commitments on development by the international community, together with a set of specific targets against which to measure progress in the reduction of global poverty in all its forms.

In July, the UN Secretary General launched the UN's annual report for 2009 on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. He warned that, despite significant achievements since 2000, progress has been too slow for the achievement in full of the Goals, and the global economic crisis is likely to have a particularly strong impact on the developing countries.

The UN report highlights progress up to 2008, notably in the reduction of extreme poverty, increased enrolment in primary education, and a steady decline in deaths of children under five. It also provides initial data on the impact of the economic crisis over the past year, suggesting that poverty levels are increasing again, as is the prevalence of hunger in developing countries. It warns that progress may now be eroding in a range of areas, including child nutrition, maternal health and gender equality. The UN has concluded that the achievement of the Goals by 2015 remains within reach, but that accelerated progress must be achieved on provision of employment, on the war against hunger, on primary school enrolment, and on maternal mortality, sanitation, urban poverty and the preservation of natural resources.

When I addressed the UN conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis in New York in June, I stated that the scale and unpredictability of the global economic crisis is seriously undermining progress on the Millennium Development Goals. I emphasised that twin challenges of economic crisis and pressure on aid budgets internationally demand that we improve the effectiveness of our aid, and focus more clearly on key priorities.

The core priority of Ireland's aid programme is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger in the developing world. In response to the recommendations of the Government's Hunger Task Force, I have established the fight against global hunger as a cornerstone of the aid programme, and of our development policy. Ireland is taking a strong lead internationally on the hunger crisis, highlighting the over-riding importance of the first Millennium Development Goal, to halve the proportion of people living in poverty and hunger.

It is expected that Ireland will again this year be the sixth most generous aid donor internationally, in per capita terms. We are playing an important role also in shaping the development policy of the European Union, which provides almost 60 per cent of global development assistance. In the current difficult economic environment, I believe it is essential that we work together with our partners in the developing world, and with the UN to give renewed impetus to the fight against global poverty and hunger in line with the Millennium Development Goals.