Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 111: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the current contacts between the Government and that of the Cote d'Ivoire. [7172/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland does not have a resident embassy in Cote d'Ivoire, but is accredited to Cote d'Ivoire through our Permanent Mission to the UN in New York. The Ambassador of Cote d'Ivoire in London is also accredited to Ireland on a non-resident basis. The most recent visit to Ireland at Ministerial level was 22 February 2007, when Côte d'Ivoire's Minister for Economy and Finance and Minister for Communications visited Dublin and met with a group of Ministers and Deputies including Minister of State Lenihan and Mr John Cregan, T.D.

Elections were due to be held in Cote d'Ivoire in 2005 but have been postponed several times, for a variety of reasons including disputes over rebel disarmament and voter registration. Most recently they were scheduled for February or March 2010, but in December last they were postponed once more. The EU plans to send an Election Observation Mission to cover the elections, which it is hoped will be held sometime this year.

Since 2007, Irish Aid has provided over €2.5milliom to Cote d'Ivoire. €800,000 was provided in long-term development funding to a partner organisation, The Leprosy Mission and missionaries working in Cote d'Ivoire. These funds have supported basic education and health programmes and capacity building. In addition, €1,756,931 was provided for a range of projects operated by UN agencies under the Consolidated Appeals Process as well as for a Gender Based Violence project operated by an international NGO, in 2007.