Ruairí Quinn
Question:6 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will give a breakdown of ODA received by each recipient country over the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22214/99]
Other Questions. - Official Development Assistance.
Ivor Callely
Question:9 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the allocation for official development assistance in 1999; if he will give a breakdown of this figure; the relevant authorities to which funding is allocated; the projects in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25471/99]
Willie Penrose
Question:33 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs when this country will reach the UN target of 0.7% of GNP for overseas development aid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25514/99]
Bernard J. Durkan
Question:83 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the extent, if any, to which he proposes to increase overseas development aid in 2000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25771/99]
Bernard J. Durkan
Question:84 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will enhance the bilateral aid programme in 2000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25772/99]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 9, 33, 83 and 84 together.
With regard to the request for details of the amounts committed in the past three years to individual countries, all of the information sought and much more is contained in the annual reports of the Irish aid programme, copies of which I will, for ease of reference, have placed in the Library of the House. Information culled from these sources has been collated in tables for each of the three years and is circulated with this reply.
These tables show only the funds which can be specifically linked to the countries concerned. Funds expended through NGOs, fellowships, the European Union, United Nations, other multilateral organisations and various trust funds do not easily lend themselves to geographic breakdown and are not included. Neither are figures included for the expenditure of Agency for Personal Service Overseas – APSO – which produces its own detailed statistics annually. I am arranging for a copy of the agency's annual report for the last year to be placed in the Library of the House.
Official Development Assistance for 1999 is an estimate. All of the components which make up ODA will not be fully known until well into next year. As with the above information, details on ODA for previous years are contained in the annual reports on the Irish development aid programme. The following is our calculation of the breakdown of the 1999 ODA estimate:
|
£ million |
|
|
Multilateral Aid: |
76.147 |
|
Bilateral Aid: |
98.742 |
|
Administration & Tax Deductibility: |
3.425 |
|
Total: |
178.314 |
Multilateral aid comprises: payment by the Department of Finance to the International Development Association of the World Bank; payment by the Department of Finance to multilateral debt relief schemes of the World Bank; payment by the Department of the Environment and Local Government to the Global Environment Facility; payment by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development to the World Food Programme, the Food Aid Convention and the various development schemes of the food and agriculture organisation; payment by the Department of Foreign Affairs to the European Development Fund; payment by the Department of Foreign Affairs to the International Fund for Agricultural Development, various UN agencies and funds and the element of the Irish contribution to the EU budget used for aid purposes.
Bilateral aid comprises: the Bilateral Aid Programme; the Agency for Personal Service Overseas; Emergency Humanitarian Assistance and Programme refugees.
Administration is made up of: the element of the cost of development co-operation division of the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is borne on the other Foreign Affairs vote, Vote 38; the amount either paid over or foregone by the Revenue Commissioners arising from contributions to registered Irish charities working in developing countries.
The issue of the target for IDA was dealt with extensively in my reply to six questions in the House on 2 November. The following is a short reprise of what I said then.
We accept and are committed to reaching the UN target for all donors of 0.7% of GNP. Our efforts to make progress to this target have been complicated by the high growth in GNP in the last few years and the recent switch to a new system of calculating GNP which increases the base figure. Despite this, the Government is pledged to increasing ODA by significant cash amounts year on year and to making credible progress to the UN target and to the interim target we have set of 0.45% of GNP. The three-year agreement on allocations is evidence of the Government's determination on the matter.
1996
|
Country |
Bilateral AidFund |
RehabilitationAssistance |
EmergencyHumanitarianAssistance |
Human RightsDemocratisation |
Totals |
|
Afghanistan |
160,000 |
160,000 |
|||
|
Albania |
52,625 |
52,625 |
|||
|
Angola |
169,070 |
50,000 |
219,070 |
||
|
Bangladesh |
190,824 |
160,000 |
1,514 |
352,338 |
|
|
Bosnia |
2,473,741 |
984,823 |
100,000 |
3,558,564 |
|
|
Bulgaria |
100,000 |
100,000 |
|||
|
Cambodia |
498,383 |
220,000 |
50,000 |
768,383 |
|
|
Chechnya |
225,000 |
225,000 |
|||
|
China |
67,307 |
67,307 |
|||
|
East Timor |
10,000 |
10,000 |
|||
|
El Salvador |
30,147 |
30,147 |
|||
|
Eritrea |
130,000 |
130,000 |
|||
|
Ethiopia |
7,044,915 |
100,290 |
7,145,205 |
||
|
Former USSR |
80,030 |
80,030 |
|||
|
Ghana |
120,065 |
120,065 |
|||
|
Great Lakes |
3,878,337 |
195,197 |
4,073,534 |
||
|
Infoterra/Sasin |
21,422 |
21,422 |
|||
|
Iran |
35,000 |
35,000 |
|||
|
Iraq |
150,000 |
150,000 |
|||
|
Laos |
25,000 |
25,000 |
|||
|
Lebanon |
240,045 |
240,045 |
|||
|
Lesotho |
4,163,302 |
12,461 |
4,175,763 |
1996
|
Country |
Bilateral AidFund |
RehabilitationAssistance |
EmergencyHumanitarianAssistance |
Human RightsDemocratisation |
Totals |
|
Mexico |
100,000 |
100,000 |
|||
|
Mozambique |
1,151,377 |
1,151,377 |
|||
|
N. Korea |
65,000 |
65,000 |
|||
|
Nicaragua |
80,000 |
80,000 |
|||
|
Nigeria |
71,518 |
71,518 |
|||
|
Palestinian Admin Areas |
1,403,846 |
25,000 |
1,428,846 |
||
|
Phillippines |
(14,732) |
(14,732) |
|||
|
Rwanda |
467,000 |
467,000 |
|||
|
Somalia |
215,000 |
215,000 |
|||
|
Somalia |
100,000 |
100,000 |
|||
|
South Africa |
1,658,087 |
43,509 |
252,355 |
1,953,951 |
|
|
Sudan |
671,373 |
225,000 |
896,373 |
||
|
Tajikistan |
300,000 |
300,000 |
|||
|
Tanzania |
5,038,381 |
775 |
5,039,156 |
||
|
Uganda |
2,257,207 |
20,535 |
5,879 |
2,283,621 |
|
|
West Africa |
663,000 |
50,000 |
713,000 |
||
|
Zambia |
5,491,893 |
5,491,893 |
|||
|
Zimbabwe |
778,461 |
778,461 |
|||
|
Total |
$42,859,962 |
1997
|
Country |
Bilateral AidFund |
RehabilitationAssistance |
EmergencyHumanitarianAssistance |
Human RightsDemocratisation |
Totals |
|
Afghanistan |
252,858 |
252,858 |
|||
|
Albania |
32,424 |
32,424 |
|||
|
Angola |
509,654 |
100,020 |
20,000 |
629,674 |
|
|
Asia/Pacific |
50,825 |
50,825 |
|||
|
Bangladesh |
208,543 |
208,543 |
|||
|
Bosnia |
1,127,349 |
217,015 |
16,871 |
1,361,235 |
|
|
Burma |
50,000 |
50,000 |
|||
|
Burundi |
375,023 |
375,023 |
|||
|
Cambodia |
60,582 |
198,030 |
25,000 |
283,612 |
|
|
Chechnya |
242,030 |
18,336 |
260,366 |
||
|
Con. Ind. States (fmr. USSR) |
15,030 |
15,030 |
|||
|
Congo |
1,034,515 |
1,034,515 |
|||
|
Czech Rep |
10,030 |
10,030 |
|||
|
Dominican Republic |
8,960 |
8,960 |
|||
|
East Timor |
30,000 |
30,000 |
|||
|
El Salvador |
84,404 |
84,404 |
|||
|
Eritrea |
5,997 |
5,997 |
|||
|
Ethiopia |
9,191,308 |
240,033 |
9,431,341 |
||
|
Ghana |
200,000 |
200,000 |
|||
|
Guatemala |
49,400 |
49,400 |
|||
|
Honduras |
77,500 |
15,000 |
92,500 |
||
|
Indonesia |
25,000 |
25,000 |
|||
|
Infoterra/Sasin |
28,575 |
28,575 |
|||
|
Iran |
100,000 |
100,000 |
|||
|
Iraq |
117,025 |
117,025 |
|||
|
Kenya |
187,371 |
64,000 |
251,371 |
||
|
Lebanon |
40,037 |
40,037 |
|||
|
Lesotho |
4,032,490 |
4,032,490 |
|||
|
Liberia |
187,000 |
187,000 |
|||
|
Malawi |
128,269 |
20,000 |
148,269 |
||
|
Mali |
50,000 |
50,000 |
|||
|
Mauritania |
70,000 |
70,000 |
|||
|
Mexico |
50,000 |
50,000 |
|||
|
Mozambique |
3,905,798 |
3,905,798 |
|||
|
N. Korea |
450,000 |
450,000 |
|||
|
Namibia |
100,000 |
20,000 |
120,000 |
||
|
Nigeria |
26,659 |
26,659 |
|||
|
Palestinian Admin Areas |
999,406 |
30,000 |
1,029,406 |
||
|
Papua New Guinea |
25,000 |
25,000 |
|||
|
Poland |
15,030 |
15,030 |
1997
|
Country |
Bilateral AidFund |
RehabilitationAssistance |
EmergencyHumanitarianAssistance |
Human RightsDemocratisation |
Totals |
|
Rwanda |
1,817,171 |
480,000 |
70,000 |
2,367,171 |
|
|
S.E. Asia |
27,200 |
27,200 |
|||
|
Senegal |
40,000 |
40,000 |
|||
|
Sierra Leone |
196,912 |
196,912 |
|||
|
Somalia |
245,000 |
70,000 |
315,000 |
||
|
South Africa |
2,071,335 |
2,071,335 |
|||
|
Sudan |
583,727 |
419,003 |
1,002,730 |
||
|
Tajikistan |
150,000 |
150,000 |
|||
|
Tanzania |
6,956,999 |
300,003 |
41,900 |
7,298,902 |
|
|
Uganda |
5,358,582 |
22,362 |
5,380,944 |
||
|
Vietnam |
256,466 |
256,466 |
|||
|
Zambia |
6,177,499 |
6,177,499 |
|||
|
Zimbabwe |
929,912 |
929,912 |
|||
|
Total: |
$51,352,468 |
1998
|
Country |
Bilateral AidFund |
RehabilitationAssistance |
EmergencyHumanitarianAssistance |
Human RightsDemocratisation |
Totals |
|
Afghanistan |
157,000 |
157,000 |
|||
|
Albania |
17,900 |
17,900 |
|||
|
Angola |
252,000 |
100,000 |
352,000 |
||
|
Asia/Pacific |
50,825 |
50,825 |
|||
|
Bangladesh |
297,254 |
300,000 |
100,000 |
697,254 |
|
|
Bosnia |
1,328,000 |
100,015 |
20,000 |
1,448,015 |
|
|
Burundi |
115,000 |
753,000 |
136,080 |
1,004,080 |
|
|
Cambodia |
63,052 |
95,000 |
215,000 |
68,090 |
441,142 |
|
Central America |
550,000 |
3,495 |
553,495 |
||
|
Chechnya |
195,000 |
195,000 |
|||
|
China |
125,000 |
10,598 |
135,598 |
||
|
Congo |
87,845 |
87,845 |
|||
|
Dominican Republic |
21,500 |
21,500 |
|||
|
Ethiopia |
11,300,693 |
15,000 |
11,315,693 |
||
|
Ghana |
454 |
454 |
|||
|
Haiti |
25,000 |
25,000 |
|||
|
Honduras |
20,000 |
20,000 |
|||
|
Horn of Africa |
10,000 |
10,000 |
|||
|
India |
75,000 |
50,000 |
125,000 |
||
|
Indonesia |
100,000 |
100,000 |
|||
|
Infoterra/Sasin |
5,275 |
5,275 |
|||
|
Iran |
121,025 |
121,025 |
|||
|
Iraq |
0 |
||||
|
Kenya |
201,000 |
31,625 |
232,625 |
||
|
Kosovo |
200,000 |
200,000 |
|||
|
Lebanon |
40,025 |
40,025 |
|||
|
Lesotho |
4,679,374 |
4,679,374 |
|||
|
Liberia |
100,000 |
100,000 |
|||
|
Malawi |
0 |
5,000 |
5,000 |
||
|
Mali |
50,000 |
50,000 |
|||
|
Mozambique |
5,145,647 |
5,145,647 |
|||
|
Namibia |
5,000 |
5,000 |
|||
|
Nicaragua |
17,212 |
17,212 |
|||
|
Nigeria |
38,717 |
38,717 |
|||
|
Palestinian Admin Areas |
901,475 |
118,136 |
1,019,611 |
||
|
Peru |
36,141 |
36,141 |
|||
|
Philippines |
50,000 |
20,000 |
70,000 |
||
|
Romania |
2,500 |
2,500 |
|||
|
Russia |
100,000 |
100,000 |
|||
|
Rwanda |
1,843,388 |
350,000 |
2,193,388 |
||
|
Sierra Leone |
379,000 |
15,000 |
394,000 |
||
|
Somalia |
432,000 |
350,000 |
782,000 |
||
|
South Africa |
2,254,135 |
2,000 |
2,256,135 |
||
|
Sri Lanka |
50,000 |
50,000 |
|||
|
Sudan |
498,062 |
1,237,025 |
1,735,087 |
1998
|
Country |
Bilateral AidFund |
RehabilitationAssistance |
EmergencyHumanitarianAssistance |
Human RightsDemocratisation |
Totals |
|
Tanzania |
10,121,166 |
100,000 |
10,221,166 |
||
|
Thailand |
44,000 |
44,000 |
|||
|
Uganda |
5,150,060 |
125,008 |
5,275,068 |
||
|
Ukraine |
3,175 |
3,175 |
|||
|
Zambia |
5,862,248 |
5,862,248 |
|||
|
Zimbabwe |
860,360 |
860,360 |
|||
|
Total: |
IR£58,302,580 |
Proinsias De Rossa: I thank the Minister for a useful reply in terms of the breakdown of Ireland's contributions and the various routes by which money is channelled at European and world level. Will the Minister of State outline the level of aid she expects for 2000? Will it meet the commitments the Minster for Finance made to her last year when she negotiated for the three year period? Is she concerned, as I am, about the current stance of the EU Council of Ministers on which Ireland is represented? It insists that aid to Kosovo be covered by a cut in aid to developing countries. The European Parliament has rejected this approach while the Council of Ministers is maintaining its position. Does she agree that this will lead to a clash between the two bodies? What position is the Government taking in the Council of Ministers?
I remind Members that ordinary questions are governed by rules of the House and supplementary questions and answers are limited to one minute.
The agreement reached with the Minster for Finance last year covered the years 1999, 2000 and 2001. The total package amounted to £400 million. The figure in 1999 was higher than expected at £178 million. I expect an increase of approximately £26 million next year on that part of the budget administered by my Department.
We will have to increasingly depend on other Departments to be part of our overall reckoned ODA. For example, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment recently entered an agreement to pay $1 million to enable Ireland become a founding member of an organisation connected with the WTO to enable the least developed countries to get advice on the negotiations. Similarly, the Department of Finance will be encouraged by me and others to increasingly contribute to debt relief mechanisms, including the HIPC and other World Bank initiatives, to relieve the burden of debt on the least developed countries. In terms of the budget administered by my Department and the subheads over which I have control, I am satisfied I have sufficient money to deal with our planned management and development of that pro gramme over the next three years. Certainly, I would like more money.
I am aware of the difficulty on aid to Kosovo to which the Deputy referred. The cut in aid is having an unfair impact on the least developed countries. At the last Development Council meeting we were very vocal in expressing our concerns.
Does the Minister of State have an estimate of the number of children who will die next year from easily preventable diseases in this area of the developing world? Will it be ten million? We must be specific if we are to get people to support increases in development aid.
I cannot be specific because child mortality rates have improved, especially in the Third World. At the same time, in some countries many of the gains in development over the past decade are now being reversed by the awful spectre of AIDS, which especially affects babies and children, many of whom die before they reach their fifth birthday. Given this, I am sure the Deputy agrees that we need to continually argue for increases in aid in the international community where, regrettably, there has been a decline in donor generosity by some OECD countries. We are tenth in a list of 21 donors, so in terms of our ODA contributions our performance is respectable. It still needs to improve but, unfortunately, there is donor fatigue and constant advocacy is needed to retain solidarity on the issue of helping the poorest in the world.