First, A Cheann Comhairle, I would like to thank you for giving me permission to raise this matter on the Adjournment. My request was occasioned by the appearance of a news item in today's issue of a daily newspaper. The item was small in size but very large in its implications and ramifications for the Third World. I want to afford the Minister of State present an opportunity to clarify the statement attributed to him when speaking in Brussels yesterday. I hope he will indicate to the House that he was misunderstood, misquoted or indeed misinterpreted and that far from posing a further threat to Ireland's overseas development aid the Government will restore it to the percentage of the gross national product it was before they took office.
All relief agencies must surely feel threatened and indeed horrified that the Government are about to launch a further attack on the poorest of the poor. Indeed this sentiment was re-echoed in a Trócaire paper published last October. It stated that a very serious threat hangs over the future of Ireland's programme. It is clear that if these proposed cuts are implemented and cuts of the same magnitude follow next year it will effectively mean the end of the bilaterial programme. I sincerely hope I am wrong in interpreting the Minister's statement as an attempt to condition the people for further massive cuts in overseas development aid, preparing the ground, laying down markers so to speak, for the total and complete abolition of the overseas development aid.
One would have thought that the present Fianna Fáil Government had done enough damage already to ODA and that for their remaining period in office, be it long or short, they would have the common decency to treat that Vote as sacrosanct, that despite our own economic difficulties, and I would be the first to admit that we have such, we as a nation would not literally take bread out of the mouth of the most vulnerable section of humanity. Believe it or not, that in essence is what we are doing. We are turning our backs on the poorest of the poor.
Famine relief always finds a sensitive and sympathetic response in the hearts of all Irishmen. Perhaps it is a throwback to our own disastrous famine in the mid-1840s and the fact that we were colonised for over 700 years and, like the underprivileged of today's Third World, we too knew the yoke of slavery, deprivation, hunger and victimisation.
In a survey carried out in 1985, 83 per cent of Irish people supported the principle that the Government should at least maintain, if not increase, their aid to the Third World. Given the problem at present besetting our country — 19 per cent unemployed, high taxation, increasing poverty, rising emigration, the highest birth rate in the EC, the high dependency ratio of old and young — the Irish people are known to be among the nations most concerned about the people in the Third World. The magnificent response and support given to Bob Geldof in Band Aid and Live Aid, the highest contribution per capita in the EC, amply confirm these findings. We also make magnificent contributions through Trocaire and Concern and a host of other relief agencies. This help is given willingly by the Irish people for the relief of those in the Third World.
Irish people believe in the essential dignity of people and in their capacity to overcome the problems and pressures which can crush or exploit them. In the pastoral letter on development, issued by the Irish Catholic Bishops on 2 February 1973 on the setting up of Trócaire, the Catholic agency for world development, the basic moral and Christian reasons for an Irish development policy were clearly stated and in a bold assertion of international equity and justice they declared:
The earth and its good things belong to all the people of the earth and no nation has the right to build its own property upon the misery of others. It is our Christian duty as individuals to share our wealth and to help our needy brothers. It is equally our Christian duty to demand that the political authorities representing us act always with justice and responsibility towards less fortunate countries and be prepared to use all means necessary for this end.
Surely against this background of moral authority the Government could seek and expect to get the consent of the Irish people not only to maintain but to increase their overseas development aid contributions. In this regard the Government must surely stand indicated, be guilty of moral cowardice and out of touch with the feelings and true sentiments of the Irish people. Contrast this attitude with that of the former Coalition Government.
One of the most significant achievements of the Fine Gael Party when in Government was their absolute commitment to overseas development aid as evidenced by the establishment, for the first time in our history, of a Ministry of State for Development Co-Operation. Coupled to this was the undertaking to advance in a phased manner towards the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent of our gross national product which resulted, in spite of the difficult economic situation which then existed, in a record allocation of £43 million to overseas development aid in the last year in office.
If any one action of Fianna Fáil in Government epitomised their uncaring and insensitive nature, it is their reneging on this commitment. The massive £11 million cuts as disclosed in the Estimates for 1988 amount to the virtual total dismantling of the overseas development aid programme and have left a trail of anger, confusion and disbelief in all the relief agencies.
The Government have reneged on many of their statutory and voluntary commitments. The bilaterial aid programme has been slashed by a massive £4 million which must assuredly cause death and hardship in four of the world's poorest countries — the Sudan, Lesotho, Tanzania and Zambia — with which we have bilaterial arrangements. The grantin-aid to Gorta, an organisation which has been doing such trojan work, has been discontinued. The disaster relief has been reduced from over £500,000 to a derisory £1,000. The world food programme has also been dismantled. The litany of cuts and reductions continues and it must leave our international reputation as a caring and concerned people sullied and tarnished.
The reputation of our international obligations must reduce substantially our moral authority and weaken our voice on all world fora. These cuts could not have come at a worse time for the Third World. The debt crisis continues unabated and continues to constrain development in many parts of the Third World. These countries are caught in ths spiral of indebtedness, inflation, failing crops, natural disasters and internal strife, all militating against a resolution of their problems and the recipient country only sinking lower and lower into debt and despair. It is estimated that the total indebtedness of the Third World countries now amounts to the horrendous figure of $1.19 trillion. Nothing short of global action by the developing countries can bring hope to these countries and Ireland should give the moral lead to the rest of the world rather than betraying further its Christian ideals.
These cuts and the proposed cuts are taking place against the background of more than 250,000 young children dying weekly from preventable causes and our response has been less than enthusiastic to their horrific plight, as witnessed by our contribution to the Grand Alliance for Children sponsored by UNICEF. Against this background we have the scandalous food surplus in Europe, and especially in the EC. It is estimated that EC stocks amount to 1.4 million tonnes of butter, 1.3 million tonnes of skim milk powder, about 500,000 tonnes of beef, 16 million tonnes of cereals and 33 million hectolitres of wine, not to mention other products like sugar and tobacco. These figures are staggering and scandalous. While mothers and children die of starvation in Sub-Saharan Africa, crops are deliberately destroyed in the northern hemisphere to maintain prices, and land is deliberately kept fallow. Ireland, rather than reneging on its Christian responsibility, should be the front runner in exerting its moral influence on the development world and respond decisively to alleviate world hunger and famine, but how can it do that when its moral authority is being undermined by a continuing reduction of its overseas development aid?
I would like the Minister to state categorically and to confirm his Department's position in respect of the forthcoming Estimates for 1989 and to dispel any doubts that have arisen from his statement. Not only I but all the relief agencies await his reply.
