I move:
That Dáil Éireann approves the 1983 Protocol for the futher extension of the Food Aid Convention 1980 which has been laid before the Dáil.
Dáil approval of the terms of the 1983 Protocol for the further extension of the Food Aid Convention, 1980, is necessary in accordance with Article 29.5.2º of the Constitution which stipulates that "the State shall not be bound by an international agreement involving a charge upon public funds unless the terms of the agreement shall have been approved by Dáil Éireann."
An explanatory note has been circulated to Deputies. It outlines the provisions of the convention and covers the cost of Irish participation.
The International Wheat Agreement, 1971, has two parts: (i) The Wheat Trade Convention for the regulation of the commercial wheat market; and (ii) The Food Aid Convention for the supply of food aid in the form of cereals to the developing world.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Accession to the European Community, Ireland was obliged to accede to the Food Aid Convention as the original member states and the Community were a party to it. We therefore acceded to the Food Aid Convention in June 1973, and have acceded to each extension since then. The Wheat Trade Convention was extended on the same occasions in order to maintain the framework of the International Wheat Agreement.
In view of the deteriorating world food position, a new Food Aid Convention was negotiated in March 1980. The new convention was approved by this House on 24 June 1980 and Ireland duly ratified it on 30 June of that year. The convention came into force on 1 July 1980, was extended initially to 30 June 1981 and again to 30 June 1983 which coincided with the Sixth Extension of the Wheat Trade Convention, 1971.
The motion before the House seeks approval for the extension of the Food Aid Convention 1980 until 30 June 1986. The Wheat Trade Convention is also being extended to cover the same period. The effect of the two extensions, therefore, will be to extend the life of the International Wheat Agreement pending the possible negotiation of a new agreement. Ireland, together with its Community partners signed the protocols extending both conventions on 10 May 1983. Instruments of ratification must be deposited by 30 June 1983, hence the urgency of getting the matter through the House at this stage.
The Food Aid Convention, 1980, which the protocol under discussion today seeks to extend, binds its adherents to providing total annual contributions of 7.592 million tonnes of cereals for developing countries. The European Community and its member states have undertaken to supply a minimum of 1.65 million tonnes of cereals in the form of wheat, coarse grains or derivative products suitable for human consumption. This contribution is discharged partly by the Community from its own reserves and partly by the member states nationally in accordance with an agreed scale. Ireland's national contribution, which is channelled through the World Food Programme, is 4,080 tonnes per annum. The cost of this is borne by the Vote for the Department of Agriculture.
The Government are pleased to support this further extension of the Food Aid Convention, 1980 — a convention which, as Deputies will recall, increased the minimum annual contribution of aid from 4.226 million tonnes to 7.592 million tonnes. Ireland's national commitment under the 1980 Convention represented an increase of approximately 1,000 tonnes per annum on the 1971 Convention. Total accumulated contributions to the Food Aid Convention by Ireland by virtue of our national commitment between the years 1975 and 1982 amount to more than £4.16 million. In this year's Vote for Agriculture a further £800,000 has been allocated for the purpose of fulfilling our obligations under the convention.
Deputies will agree that the most immediate problems facing developing countries are hunger and malnutrition. Since 1981 the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has designated 16 October each year as World Food Day in an effort to develop a sense of national and international solidarity in the struggle against these twin evils. At this point I wish to pay tribute to the work done by Gorta in organising one-day seminars to mark World Food Day.
When it comes to alleviating hunger and malnutrition in the developing world we believe that the food aid we donate should be effective. This means that it should bring real relief to those in distress, that it should provide them with the nutrition they require and that it should contribute to the development of the recipient countries.
Food aid is, however, only part of the solution. The root of the problem, as the Brandt Commission has clearly shown in its report North-South: A Programme for Survival and its more recent memorandum Common Crisis, is poverty. The cure for poverty is growth. In the poorest countries the vicious circle of poverty and hunger can only be broken through rural and agricultural development providing food and employment for their peoples and creating the conditions necessary for growth.
Realisation of these imperatives has resulted in the development of a new, more dynamic approach to the problem of hunger. Following the lead of the World Food Council, the European Community has launched as part of its Plan of Action to Combat Hunger in the World a process of dialogue with selected developing countries. The countries chosen for the first experimental phase are Zambia, Kenya, Mali and Rwanda. The aim of this dialogue is to draw up a strategy for the agricultural development of the countries concerned which would subsequently be integrated with EEC development aid. Food aid as such would then become an integral part of the strategy with a view to its being phased out as the recipient country became self-sufficient in food. It would, of course, continue to be required in emergencies to cope with the problems of natural disasters and of refugees.
This is the thrust of the most recent EEC Commission proposals for policy guidelines on food aid, now under discussion at the Council of Ministers. We believe that this is the right approach. Food aid will continue to be required in increasing quantities for the foreseeable future, but it should never be seen as more than a stop-gap to alleviate short-term needs while the work of helping those in need to help themselves continues. It is such considerations which have led us to endorse the food strategy approach where donor and beneficiary co-operate to the benefit of all concerned. In this perspective we will continue to give generously to feed the hungry, but we look forward to the time when through increased co-operation the need for food aid will be eliminated in all but the most exceptional cases.
It is for this reason also that Ireland has consistently supported the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, whose objectives are increased food production, reduced rural poverty and improved nutrition in developing countries. For the same reason since 1980 we have contributed over 3,725 tonnes of fertiliser at a cost of £762,000 to Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya and Sierra Leone under the FAO's International Fertiliser Supply Scheme. We particularly respect the approach of the World Food Programme which consists of using food supplied by donors as an aid to economic and social development. Food donations are used, for example, as part of workers' wages, as a way of attracting children to school and improving their health and as an incentive to voluntary participation in community development.
The continued need for the international community to channel food aid to needy populations is unquestionable. The Food Aid Convention is the preeminent international vehicle for the supply of food aid to developing countries. It is in this spirit that I recommend to the House the protocol extending the Food Aid Convention, 1980.