Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 35: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will develop and deliver a millennium development goals action plan in the run up to 2015 as recommended by Dóchas members. [20983/10]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 55: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the preliminary meetings that he proposes to hold in Ireland, Europe or abroad in preparation for the review meeting of the United Nations in September on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; the role he sees for participation by the opposition and by members of civil society. [20931/10]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 65: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he at the Review Meeting in September in relation to the millennium Development Goals will favour the reconfiguration of resources and such flexibility as will enable the disposal of resources to areas in which it is likely that the Millennium Development Goals are not likely to be achieved. [20946/10]

Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 35, 55 and 65 together.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by Heads of Government at the Millennium Summit in 2000 provide the framework for international development up to 2015. They set specific, measurable development targets and represent the commitment of the international community to work for the eradication of global poverty in all its forms.

Progress on the MDGs will be reviewed at a UN Summit in New York in September. I believe it is essential that the Summit agrees a clear action plan, based on the evidence of the past ten years, to underpin work towards the achievement of the Goals. The Government has been working at the UN and with our EU partners to ensure that, working together, developed and developing countries can maintain their commitments to the world's poorest people in the face of increased global challenges and continuing international economic difficulty.

Ireland has taken a lead internationally to focus attention at the Summit on the global hunger crisis. I have made the point strongly at meetings in Europe, Africa and the United States that slow progress on the first of the MDGs, the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, is not only a scandal in itself, it is impeding progress across the whole range of development goals. We are also arguing that priority be given to those regions and groups that are lagging behind, in particular those most vulnerable to extreme poverty and hunger in sub-Saharan Africa, which is the primary geographic focus of the Government's aid programme.

Over the coming weeks, Ireland will play an important role in the preparation of a strong EU position for the Summit, which will be considered at a special meeting of Development Ministers, which I will attend, in preparation for the June European Council. Nationally, we are also preparing with the US Administration for the organisation of an Irish–US event during the New York Summit to promote a comprehensive international approach to the global hunger crisis. This will highlight the need to link agriculture, food security and nutrition programming in order to provide a realistic and sustainable solution to world hunger. I have just returned from a series of meetings in Washington and New York in preparation for this event and for our participation in the UN Summit.

We are working closely with representatives of all parties as we prepare for the Summit, and I would recognise in particular the important role being played by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. It will strengthen our position internationally if we can demonstrate that Ireland's response to the Millennium Development Goals is a national one, reflecting views across the political and the non-governmental spectrum. At a recent roundtable meeting sponsored by Trócaire, I invited Irish Aid's NGO partners to document their contribution to the achievement of the MDGs so that we can report on the full extent of Ireland's contribution over the past ten years and assess how we can work together to accelerate progress over the coming five. We have also proposed to Dóchas, the umbrella organisation for the Irish development NGOs, that we work together to prepare positions reflecting our common concerns for the Summit in September.