Eamon Gilmore
Question:94 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the progress made to date by the Ireland Aid review committee; when the committee is expected to report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12935/01]
Written Answers - Ireland Aid Review Committee.
Further to its commitment to meet the UN overseas development assistance target of 0.7% of GNP by the year 2007, the Government has appointed a 15 person Ireland Aid review committee chaired by the Minister of State with special responsibility for overseas development assistance and human rights, Deputy O'Donnell. The committee has been tasked by the Government to examine and assess the future role and management of Ireland Aid in responding to humanitarian crises and in helping to advance the objectives of poverty alleviation, sustainable development and the integration of developing countries into the world economy. The committee held its inaugural meeting on 13 February when it had an opportunity to consider various aspects of the current aid programme and the policy and management challenges posed by its expansion.
The planned fourfold expansion of Ireland's overseas aid budget, to a figure in the region of £800 million by the year 2007, will require considered and prudent management, both politically and administratively. The Government wishes to consolidate and progress the past and internationally recognised successes of the aid programme while, at the same time, ensuring that Ireland's overseas development assistance does not merely become cheque book driven. It is hoped that the review committee can make a number of key recommendations which will help to ensure that the aid programme not only does more but does more better. These will, under the committee's terms of reference, relateinter alia to strategic priority policy areas, geographical range, social and economic development, agriculture and rural development. They will also relate to a number of horizontal issues, including human rights, good governance, gender equality, peace building and conflict prevention, sustainability, HIV-AIDS and meaningful local participation.
At the same time there is the underlying objective of creating greater public ownership of the Ireland Aid programme and greater public identification with its objectives and achievements. The review will examine how this might be attained through a meaningful dialogue between Ireland Aid, the Oireachtas, the Irish people, NGOs, aid workers, missionaries, the private sector and other stakeholders – possibly by drawing on the successes of existing partnership models. In addition to considering the strategic and policy issues, the review committee will also make recommendations on the management and organisational structures which will be required to make the Ireland Aid programme expand in the most effective and accountable manner.
To date the Ireland Aid review committee has, through a series of initial meetings and presentations, considered the views of the Ireland Aid advisory committee, the National Council for Development Education and the Agency for Personal Service Overseas. It has also had meetings with Irish NGOs, such as Dóchas, Concern, Trócaire, Goal, Self-Help Development International and the Irish Missionary Union, and is set to continue this consultative process. This week, in addition to a plenary and a drafting meeting, the committee will meet the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. The review committee is continuing its work and is determined to give adequate consideration to all relevant matters, as befits the scale of the Government's commitment to a meaningful expansion of the Ireland Aid programme, and hopes to report its findings later this year.
Following the advertised 30 April closing date for the making of public submissions to the Ireland Aid review, the committee is now reviewing the opinions and insights which have become available to it by this means. To date it has received around 300 written submissions. These range in scope from full overviews of the aid programme to sectoral inputs and letters raising individual concerns. The review committee is actively considering all of these submissions and identifying the various issues which they raise as an input into the review process. The Government deeply appreciates the effort made by those who have made submissions as a meaningful contribution to shaping the future of the Ireland Aid programme.
The Ireland Aid review is a participative process which is intended to leave a lasting legacy of best practice and effective delivery of Ireland's overseas development assistance. This commitment to quality is matched by the Government's commitment to expand the Ireland Aid programme and to meet UN and other internationally agreed development goals and objectives. This is being done with an unwavering focus on those who need humanitarian and development aid most and on those who will continue to suffer because of natural or man-made disasters.