Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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61. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if the Irish Government will honour its commitment to support developing countries by meeting the millennium development goals and ensure that Ireland keeps its promise in budget 2014 to reach the international target of 0.7% GNI by 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38022/13]

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, 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 development programme, and to our renewed policy on International Development, “One World, One Future”, which reaffirms our commitment to the fight against poverty and hunger as an integral part of our foreign policy. Next week, with the Tánaiste, I will participate in a special international meeting at the UN General Assembly in New York which will review progress on the MDGs as 2015 target date approaches, and discuss ways to accelerate progress over the next two years.

It is clear that while there have been very significant achievements under the MDGs since the turn of the century, progress on the Goals has been mixed. As a result of the scaling up of development assistance, and the partnership which we and other donors have built with Governments and communities in the developing world, the targets set in some vital areas will be met by 2015. For instance, the overall extreme poverty rate will be halved, as will the proportion of people without access to clean drinking water. Considerable progress has been made in education, especially enrolment at primary level, and in addressing the HIV/ AIDS pandemic. However, less positively, some targets remain significantly off-track, notably in the areas of maternal health and maternal mortality, access to sanitation and the fight against extreme hunger, which is a central priority of Ireland’s aid programme. We believe it is essential that the entire international community strengthens and accelerates its efforts to achieve the remaining targets by 2015.

The Government is firmly committed to Ireland’s overseas aid programme. Our new Policy clearly restates our commitment to achieving the UN target of providing 0.7% of Gross National Product (GNP) for Official Development Assistance (ODA) when economic circumstances permit.

Over the past two years, the Government has broadly stabilised the budget for development assistance. This is a very significant achievement in the context of the very difficult conditions facing the country.