Eamon Gilmore
Question:11 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if the critical famine situation in Africa was discussed at the recent EC Heads of Government meeting in Luxembourg.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - African Food Aid Needs.
Nora Owen
Question:25 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the amount of food aid which is being sent by the EC to Sudan and Ethiopia and other sub-Saharan countries where over 20 million people are threatened with starvation; and if he will outline the further actions he and his EC colleagues propose to take to tackle this crisis.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 25 together.
The Taoiseach, on 17 April, made a full report to the House on the meeting of the European Council in Luxembourg which took place on 8 April. The plight of Kurdish refugees was the main topic of the meeting. The famine in Africa was not discussed on that occasion.
The General Affairs Council on 15 April discussed African food aid needs. In my reply to questions in the House on 17 April I gave a general account of the situation regarding food needs and supplies. The situation is most serious in the Horn of Africa — Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia — where about 15 million people are at risk. Many other countries, in particular Angola, Mozambique and Liberia are facing a worsening situation. According to the estimates from the Commission at the time it proposed the latest initiative by the European Community and its members states, there was an overall cereal requirement of 4.5 tonnes in food aid. Pledges from donors then amounted to about 3 million tonnes, of which the Community was supplying 1 million. This left a shortfall of 1.5 million tonnes.
The latest initiative by the Community will mobilise an additional quality of up to 600,000 tonnes. A priority will be to ensure that it is delivered with all possible speed. This will have a significant impact on the current needs. It is expected to occupy fully the capacity of internal transportation and of the international and non-governmental organisations to handle supplies over the next few months. It will not be enough, of course, to cover all requirements to the end of the year. However, it is to be hoped that other donors may also announce an additional effort.
Ireland is playing its full part in the Community initiative by making a contribution of £325,000 in addition to approximately £1 million which we will pay through the Community budget.
In addition to contributions through the Community budget, Ireland's allocations through the disaster relief fund for bilateral relief in Africa in 1991 stand at over £700,000. A further contribution of £250,000 is being provided to the World Food Programme in Sudan. We also contribute to the efforts of other international relief agencies.
While I appreciate the information the Minister gives in relation to the amount of aid, surely the question is whether the European Community is responding in time to what are well forecast crises of hunger in Africa. I have a report which indicates that the crisis facing Sudan and so forth was forecast last autumn and yet we are dealing with this as an emergency. It seems extraordinary that we do not appear capable of dealing with these crises of hunger unless we see the problem facing us on the television screens. Would the Minister indicate what kind of early response mechanism exists at European Community level to monitor what has been forecast with regard to hunger in Africa and to take the steps needed to prevent the worst effects of this hunger?
The Deputy is embarking on quite a long speech.
The fact is that on a regular basis, apart from the current crisis——
This is not good enough at Question Time.
Apart from the current crisis——
The Deputy has made his point.
Will you let me finish my point, a Cheann Comhairle? Apart from the current crisis of hunger, on a regular basis 40,000 people per day die in Africa.
This is Question Time. Let us have some regard for the procedure.
My question is no longer than the Minister's reply. Could the Minister indicate what early warning is in place and if it does no exist — as it clearly does not — what steps are being taken by the Irish Government to ensure a system is put in place?
This is a clear abuse of Question Time.
We are talking about thousands of people dying on a daily basis.
Hundreds of thousands.
This is a clear abuse of the procedures of the House.
The Commission has available to it information with regard to the developing situations in the countries we are talking about, and on the analysis of such information the Commission puts forward proposals on how we might deal with the problem and we will be as helpful as we can. I have listed in detail for the Deputy the actions of the Community and our own bilateral actions.
It is fair comment for the Deputy to say that perhaps the Commission, the Community and ourselves, did not act in time but we have acted, and acted quite readily, when the proposals come to us. It would be fair criticism as well to say that the delivery of the aid has not been adequate because there are many other problems there which have to be overcome. The Deputy will know that some months ago we debated in this House the question of the tragic civil war in Ethiopia and the difficulties we had in getting food aid to different parts of that country when the port of Massawa was sealed off by the Government of the day who would not allow us to use its facilities. Despite the best efforts of the Community, the Commission and ourselves at times, for reasons I have already given in a long answer to Deputy Higgins and which was not acceptable to our colleagues here in Fine Gael because of the information in it, it is not always possible to do what one wants to do at the appropriate time.
Would the Minister not accept that, despite the list he has given us here today, it is clear that it is not answering severe problems in Africa. Would the Minister now undertake, as was done in 1984, to form part of the ministerial visit to Africa to endeavour to raise the profile and the responsibility of the European countries in this issue? Would he further tell me if he has any information of the effect the departure of President Mengistu from Ethiopia will have on the EC's relations with Ethiopia and if he will perhaps take up that issue as well?
Some elements of the Deputy's supplementary question have already been dealt with this afternoon. I do not propose to go back over them again. With regard to the section of her question which deals with the possibility of a ministerial visit to Africa, I presume for the purpose of getting information, I can assure the Deputy that there is no shortage whatsoever of information within the European Community and here with regard to the situation as it is there. There are many problems which have to be overcome, first in getting the aid to these people. The Deputy recognises that and I have already mentioned it. I see no purpose in sending a ministerial delegation there as of now. If I thought it would achieve anything I would be strongly in support of it. At Foreign Ministers meetings which are held twice a month we regularly have discussions on the situation as it is developing with presentations and analyses of the problems from the Community and from the Commission which are most helpful to us in formulating policy after informed discussion.
Might I ask the Minister if he does not agree that it would be useful and also welcomed by the Irish people if we heard a candid statement on the suggested logistical difficulties to delivery of aid? Is the Minister not aware that every single person concerned in this country asks himself or herself, why logistical difficulties in the delivery of aid and no related logistical difficulties in military response? Would the Minister not agree that it is in the interests of everybody that the Irish Government would take an initiative on reporting on such logistical difficulties as are delaying urgent aid to people who are starving?
The Deputy has an exceptionally bad memory, but let me remind him that on more than one occasion I have given at length in this House answers to the type of question which he is asking here today.
Deputy Jim O'Keeffe.
I did not get an answer.
I will call the Deputy again. I have called Deputy Jim O'Keeffe.
Would the Minister accept that a ministerial visit to Africa from the European Community would not in fact be for the purpose of gathering information but by way of establishing a political initiative as we did back in 1984 when I went on behalf of the Community when we had the Presidency? Would the Minister see merit in the suggestion of my colleague, Deputy Owen, that we would suggest to the European Community that a ministerial delegation would go to Africa for the purpose of developing a political initiative which would lead to a greater response on the part of the Community to the awful crisis emerging there?
I would be quite prepared to consider that suggestion.
I am surprised at the Minister's bad tempered reference to my memory when what was at issue is the 29 or 30 million Africans who are starving. My question to him was a very reasonable one which is that given the slowness in the delivery of aid in the present circumstances would it not be a worthwhile contribute for the Irish Government to take the initiative on examining and reporting on the logistical delay in responding to conditions of famine? It is a simple question.
There was no bad temper whatsoever in anything I said.
It sounded like that.
It did not sound like that, nor should it. If it did, it was not meant to. The Deputy has an exceptionally bad memory on the particular matter we are talking about because in the past on a number of occasions in this House I have explained in the greatest detail the logistical problems we had in getting supplies through to those in greatest need of them.
They should have been solved by now. We have been warned about this.