Nicky McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide information on the countries that receive overseas aid from Ireland; the amount of aid provided to each of those countries; if he will outline the programmes on which aid money is spent in each country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5455/13]

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Ireland’s assistance is directed to development programmes and emergency humanitarian assistance in over eighty of the world’s least developed countries. In addition to bilateral funding administered directly by Irish Aid, we implement programmes through trusted partners such as Non Governmental Organisations, Missionary Organisations, UN Agencies and other International Organisations engaged in development cooperation Irish Aid focuses in particular on a number of Programme Countries, where we have a commitment to long term strategic assistance. These are Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia in sub-Saharan Africa, and Vietnam in Asia. Timor Leste has now ceased to be a Programme Country. In these countries we aim to build Government capacities to deliver essential services, mainly in the areas of health, education and food security. We also work in cross-cutting sectors such as governance, gender equality, the environment and HIV and Aids, building systems of accountability that will ensure lasting development results.

Final programme budget allocations for Irish Aid’s Programme Countries in 2012 were as follows:

Comprehensive details of Ireland’s total development assistance across all recipient countries, and major development NGOs and international organisations, are published in the Irish Aid Annual Report. Details of the most recent Report, for 2011, are available on the Irish Aid website at www.irishaid.ie.