Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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114. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will outline the main points in the Irish Aid Annual Report 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38353/13]

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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The theme of the 2012 Irish Aid Annual Report, which I launched last week, is “Reducing Hunger, Strengthening Resilience.” The Report is available on the Irish Aid website, . It outlines Irish Aid's work during 2012 and includes examples of how Irish Aid - the Irish people's overseas aid programme - works to reduce hunger and strengthen resilience, as part of Ireland's overall commitment to a renewed global effort to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. While the Government's absolute priority is to restore growth, jobs and prosperity in Ireland, we cannot ignore the plight of the over 800 million men, women and children in the world who go hungry every day. Our commitment to tackling hunger is a long-standing one. It continues to be at the heart of what we do. The Report highlights examples of how we actually work to reduce hunger and improve nutrition both in our partner countries and at international level. The Report also stresses the importance of strengthening resilience in our development and humanitarian work. Resilience - ensuring that people are better able to cope with shocks - is an important part of our efforts to end poverty and hunger. It is essential to ensure that the real improvements being achieved in people's lives are not eroded by adverse events such as illness, food price increases or natural disasters.

Ireland's development programme is making a real difference to people's lives. In the Ntcheu District of Malawi, for example, following the distribution of 263,000 bednets, suspected deaths from malaria among children under five have reduced by 95% since 2010. In Ethiopia in 2012, 6.9 million people avoided hunger, through the Productive Safety Net Programme, which is supported by Ireland. In exchange for public works, vulnerable people receive predictable cash or food transfers. During my own visits to Ethiopia, I saw how people's lives have improved as they use the grants to access basic services like healthcare, education, and purchase better food and clothing for themselves and their family members.

The Annual Report reaffirms our strong commitment to transparency and accountability. It is vitally important that aid funding on behalf of the Irish people is spent effectively and that there is full accountability to taxpayers for public expenditure on development. As well as ensuring that robust financial and risk management systems are in place internally, we will continue to work to strengthen systems and oversight mechanisms in our partner countries. The Annual Report itself is part of our efforts to provide comprehensive information to the Irish public. The Report also contains statistical annexes which set out Ireland's Official Development Assistance spend for 2012 and provide detailed breakdowns on how this money was spent. In 2012, the Government provided a total of €628.90 million in Official Development Assistance (ODA), which represented 0.47% of GNP. The Report sets out in detail how this money was channelled to our partners in developing countries.