Vol. 504 No. 4
48 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the Government's view on the cancellation of Third World debt as an appropriate way to facilitate recovery in developing countries and to mark the millennium as suggested by the Jubilee 2000 campaign; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12038/99]
The burden of debt on many developing countries is an urgent challenge to the entire international community. Excessive and unsustainable debt levels have severely hindered the development prospects of many countries and this is a burden which has been disproportionately borne by the poorest. I am deeply concerned about the effects of debt. I intend that Ireland should participate fully in international measures to tackle the debt crisis.
Ireland is not a bilateral creditor of the developing countries. Our policy has always been, and will continue to be, to provide development assistance in the form of grants, rather than loans.
While Ireland is therefore not in a position to take a lead on the issue of debt cancellation, we do strongly welcome those measures – either cancellation or rescheduling of debt – which have occurred. We also recognise that these measures have not proved sufficient.
Our concern about the effects of the debt crisis led the Government in September 1998 to agree to a comprehensive debt relief package committing funds of over £31 million to ease the debt burden on the heavily indebted poor countries. This comprises £9.5 million committed to debt relief in two of the priority countries for Irish aid, Mozambique and Tanzania and £22 million to be given to multilateral debt alleviation, mainly through the joint World Bank and IMF heavily indebted poor country (HIPC) initiative. The Government also adopted a number of principles to guide our future policy on the debt situation of developing countries, intending to make the debt issue central to our future aid strategy.
Recent months have witnessed a new international resolve on debt, including the Cologne initiative launched by the German Chancellor in January 1999 as well as proposals from the US, Canada, France and the UK in recent weeks. Collectively, these developments mark an important change in terms of international attitudes towards the problem of developing world indebtedness and specifically acknowledge that present debt alleviation measures, including the joint World Bank and IMF heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative, must be significantly strengthened.
The interim and development committees of the World Bank and IMF at their spring meeting in Washington at the end of April agreed on the importance of enabling HIPC relief to be broader, faster and deeper and reiterated the importance of ensuring a clear link between debt relief and the goals of sustainable development and poverty reduction. The annual meeting of the World Bank and IMF next September is likely to consider comprehensive new measures designed to address the debt relief needs of the heavily indebted poor countries in a shorter time frame.
