Vol. 408 No. 7
9 Mr. Connor asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason 85.5 per cent of Ireland's bilateral assistance, amounting to £3.8 million, to countries affected adversely by the Gulf War was donated to Egypt and only 6.58 per cent was donated to Sudan given the fact that Egypt as a net oil supporter would have benefited from higher oil prices and also benefited from debt write-off while Sudan has no such advantages, is debt distressed and is suffering disastrous famine.
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.
I fail to understand the Minister's point that Egypt is the poorest country in GNP terms. Is the Minister aware that the Overseas Development Institute said that while Egypt has been adversely affected by the Gulf crisis current assistance to that country has more than compensated it for the impact of the Gulf War. Is he also aware that the same institute said——
The Deputy must know that quotations at Question Time are not in order. We must proceed by way of relevant and succinct questions.
The cost of the war to Sudan was 4 per cent of its gross domestic product. This is twice the amount spent by Sudan on food imports in 1990. Is the Minister aware that at present 7.7 million people are at risk of starvation in Sudan, which is——
The Deputy is imparting information rather than seeking it.
I think it would be fair to say that the Deputy fails to understand the impact of our contribution.
I do not.
In October 1990 the member states of the Community agreed to provide economic assistance totalling 1,500 million ECU to the three frontline states which were very seriously affected as a result of the imposition of UN sanctions. This was the purpose of the establishment of such a fund, to which we contributed. We gave our proportion of that contribution to Egypt for the reasons I have already outlined to the Deputy. We shaved off a little as did other member states, for Sudan——
The amount shaved off was hardly adequate.
The sound system has broken down and every effort is being made to have it repaired.
I daresay the long answers given by the Minister are the cause of this.
The Minister has even mowed down the microphones with his replies.
Obviously the message is getting through.
What is getting through is that the Minister does not want to answer our questions.
I call Question No. 10.
