Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 18: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the date on which he will report to the UN on the way Ireland will achieve its millennium goals. [8784/11]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed by world leaders at the United Nations in 2000 as the framework for international development policy up to 2015. They provide a clearly measurable way to track progress in the fight against global poverty. The Goals are central to Ireland's overseas development programme, and to the Government's development policy.

Last September, the MDG Review Summit at the UN in New York assessed progress against each of the Goals and set out the measures which will be necessary if they are to be achieved by 2015. It is clear that there has been significant progress in some areas since 2000. There have been remarkable improvements in primary school enrolment, access to clean water, child health and the treatment of HIV and AIDS. However, progress has been slow in other areas, for instance in reducing maternal mortality. The Summit agreed that international assistance needs to be directed more effectively at regions where progress has been slowest, notably sub-Saharan Africa, which is the main focus of Ireland's aid programme.

Despite the advances, the actual numbers of people living in poverty and hunger continue to increase. The first of the MDGs aims to halve the proportion of people suffering from poverty and hunger. Hunger is one of the key determinants of poverty and exclusion, and reducing hunger is a key pillar of Ireland's development policy. I know that the focus on hunger, and especially on agriculture and on mother and child nutrition, is supported in Ireland across the political spectrum. We are building our cooperation with the US Administration, with our EU partners and with developing countries to ensure that it receives the concerted international attention required.

In my role as Minister of State for development I plan to visit a number of our Programme Countries in the coming months to see the impact of our aid programme, to assess how we can strengthen our work on hunger and to underline the Government's commitment to the achievement of the MDGs.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 20: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if Ireland will be participating at the fourth high level forum on aid effectiveness in Busan in the Republic of Korea; and if so, the proposed strategy and agenda. [8785/11]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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One of the most important international meetings on development issues this year will be the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, to be held in Busan, in the Republic of Korea, in November. The Forum will represent a milestone in the international effort to judge the quality of development assistance and its contribution to social and economic progress in developing countries.

The Government's aid programme, which is administered by Irish Aid in the Department of Foreign Affairs, has a strong international reputation for its focus on poverty and hunger in some of the poorest countries, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa. The OECD Development Assistance Committee has described the aid programme as cutting edge, and a champion in making aid more effective. Ireland has played a strong role, in cooperation with other international donors and with developing countries, in the concerted international effort over the past decade to ensure that development aid is delivered to maximum effect, and contributes to sustainable change in the lives of people and communities in poor countries. Ireland is fully engaged, both nationally and through the EU, in the preparations for the Busan meeting.

The High Level Forum will assess progress on the role and contribution of aid in international development. Considerable work is being undertaken internationally to prepare and present evidence on the extent to which Official Development Assistance, together with developing countries' own resources, is leading to sustainable improvements in the lives of poor people. The Forum will bring together Government representatives from the developing and the developed world, parliamentarians, civil society and others with an interest in strengthening the impact of aid. It will be an important opportunity to discuss the framework for development in the run-up to the 2015 target date for the Millennium Development Goals, and beyond.

Ireland's aid programme has always had strong cross-party support, not least because of the demonstrable effect it is having in our Programme Countries. I look forward to visiting several of the Programme Countries over the coming months. It is essential that we be in a position to show clearly, both to the people of developing countries where we work and to the Irish people, the impact of our assistance. For instance, in Mozambique the number of people living on less than a dollar a day is continuing to decline and income per capita has doubled in the last 10 years. In Tanzania, the Government now reports a primary school enrolment rate of 95.9 per cent. In Lesotho, the percentage of people living with HIV who are accessing anti-retroviral drugs has increased from 25 per cent in 2007 to 44 per cent in 2009. Improvements such as these have only been possible through cooperation at Government, local and community level, ensuring that all resources for development are used coherently and effectively, and are focused on achieving long term improvements in the lives of poor people.

I want to ensure that Ireland's experience and evidence from our aid programme are brought to bear in Busan. In the preparations for the High Level Forum, Ireland is engaging with our partners in developing countries, and with the OECD, the EU and the UN. I believe it is important to consult also with the elected representatives of the Irish people and with the Irish organisations involved in development. I will ensure that arrangements for these consultations are put in place in the coming period, and I look forward to further discussions with Deputies in advance of November's meeting.