Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 7 Nov 1991

Vol. 412 No. 3

Written Answers. - Health Care for Children.

Nuala Fennell

Question:

58 Mrs. Fennell asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will outline the practical steps he is taking to give effect to the Taoiseach's declaration at the World Summit for Children of 29-30 September, 1990 in relation to (a) disease prevention (b) education and (c) health services for children throughout the world, especially in Third World countries.

P. J. Sheehan

Question:

66 Mr. Sheehan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will outline the practical steps he is taking to give effect to the Taoiseach's declaration at the World Summit for Children of 29-30 September, 1990 in relation to (a) disease prevention (b) education and (c) health services for children throughout the world, especially in Third World countries.

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Collins)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 58 and 66 together.

The Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children in the 1990s, and the associated Plan of Action, were adopted by the World Summit for Children, which was attended by the Taoiseach in New York in September of last year. I presume that this is the declaration to which the Deputies are referring. The Declaration outlined a series of practical steps to improve the well-being of children worldwide.

The Declaration called for action at both national and international levels. Domestically, the provisions of the Declaration are being put into effect by my colleagues the Ministers for Health, Education, Social Welfare and Justice, primarily through the Child Care Act. On the international level, the Government demonstrated its commitment to the aims of the World Summit for Children by significantly increasing our voluntary contribution to UNICEF. In 1991 we contributed £420,000 to the fund.

My Department are currently implementing a series of child-related development projects under the bilateral aid programme.

In the area of disease prevention, we have instituted a number of new Irish aid projects which will be of particular benefit to children. These include an immunisation programme in Sudan and micro-projects to control malaria and water borne diseases in Tanzania. Another example of our commitment is the new well-construction programme in the Mbala district in Northern Zambia. This project, with a budget of over £650,000 for a three-year period from 1992, should help to significantly reduce children's vulnerability to cholera. Water supply projects in Sudan and Lesotho costing £700,000 are also under way.

In the area of education, we have recently embarked under the bilateral aid programme upon an ambitious programme for the rehabilitation of primary schools in the Kilosa district of Tanzania. The programme has a budget of over £442,000 for its initial two year pilot phase, 1991-93. Following completion of the pilot phase it is intended to draw upon the lessons learned so as to prepare a more extensive programme of rehabilitation of local primary schools.

The bilateral aid programme is also involved in the provision of primary health care in Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia. For example, it supports a programme for the rehabilitation of maternity clinics in Lusaka, and a small anaesthetist training programme in Tanzania which contributes significantly to mother and child welfare through the provision of safe delivery at child birth.

This year the Government have also co-financed a number of primary education and mother and child health care projects with Non-Governmental Organisations under the 1991 NGO Co-Financing scheme. These include grants to the Loreto Sisters in Kenya towards the construction of a primary school in a slum area of Nairobi; to the Little Company of Mary Sisters towards the construction of a rural health clinic in Haiti; and to the Sisters of Mercy in South Africa towards the construction of a primary school which caters for pupils from Soweto.