I am grateful to you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, for giving me the opportunity to raise this extremely urgent and important matter on the Adjournment and I am glad the Minister of State with responsibility for overseas aid is present in the House.
Needless to say many people will be aware of the impending disaster facing many countries in Africa. Figures indicate that up to 20 million people in Africa face famine conditions this year. Unfortunately, the early warning systems were not good in identifying problems and bringing them to world attention. I only hope, as I bring attention to it in Dáil Éireann, that we are not too late.
The horrendous scale of the problem facing the poverty stricken nations on the African continent was brought home yet again to many people during the past few days. I would like to think that we will not look for excuses for failing to take action on this problem. Action needs to be taken quickly and efficiently if we are to help the millions of people threatened by a human disaster on a scale mankind has never had to deal with or face up to before.
I hope the Minister of State will outline what the intentions of the Government are, how they intend to respond, what they are prepared to do and what they are going to ask the Irish people to do. Are they going to ask them to make a contribution, however small, to deal with this unfortunate disaster? We are aware when the Irish people were asked to contribute money in the past they responded both spontaneously and generously. We should call on the generosity of the State yet again. Needless to say people will look for leadership and this will have to come from the Government. The Government do not have any excuse to run away from the problem as during the past number of days and weeks the scale and magnitude of the crisis has been highlighted by the relief agencies who are crying out for assistance before it is too late.
Unfortunately, the Government presided over savage cuts in real terms in Third World aid in recent years. The allocations for development aid and international co-operation were frozen in real terms in the budget while bilateral aid and overseas agency expenditure were cut by 3 per cent. The allocation for disaster and relief aid has been increased by 33 per cent but this means that in real terms the Government have provided £250,000 this year under this heading. This minuscule figure represents one third of what the Department of Industry and Commerce will spend on consultancy services this year, one tenth of what the Department of Agriculture and Food will spend on new office premises and one third of what the Department of Labour will spend on travel expenses alone. I have to ask the Minister of State if these represent the priorities of the Government.
We are all aware of the Lomé Convention but what we would like to know is what the Government are going to do now. It would appear that the Third World is once more being marginalised and neglected. We have spent the past few months observing events in one part of the world at the expense of another region. I would like to think that the Government will seek a response to the crisis of a scale we have never had to face up to before at both national and European Community level. The world is focusing attention on the reconstruction of the Middle East, and the developments taking place in Eastern Europe, but in all humanity we cannot allow these developments to take place at the expense of the starving millions in Africa. I appeal to the Government to lead the field in responding to the crisis. A response has to come from both Europe and the western world.
