Following the outbreak of the Gulf criss in August 1990 and the subsequent UN sanctions imposed on Iraq, the European Community and its member states agreed in October 1990 to provide economic assistance totalling some 1500 million ECU to the three frontline states which were very seriously affected as a result of the imposition of UN sanctions. These were Egypt, Jordan and Turkey. Five hundred million ECU was provided from the Community budget and the remaining 1,000 million ECU by bilateral donations from the member states. Ireland's bilateral contribution was £3.5 million.
The decision to give £3 million of this total to one of these frontline states, namely Egypt, was based on the fact that of the three it was poorest in per capita GNP terms. This follows the practice of our bilateral aid programme in seeking to direct aid to poorer countries.
While this aid from Community member states was primarily intended for three states, Ireland decided to allocate £250,000 of its contribution to Sudan in the form of food aid to take account of the fact that the economic effect of the Gulf crisis would adversely affect its ability to cope with a severe famine.
I would also mention that in addition to this allocation Ireland has provided £320,000 in emergency relief to Sudan since the outbreak of the Gulf crisis. Ireland has also maintained since 1975 a bilateral aid programme to Sudan which is one of the "priority" countries in our ODA programme. The allocation for Sudan under this programme in 1991 is £600,000.