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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 19 Jun 2001

Vol. 538 No. 3

Written Answers. - Overseas Development Aid.

Breeda Moynihan-Cronin

Question:

96 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the progress made to date by the Ireland Aid Review Committee; when the committee is expected to report; his views on the submission made on behalf of an organisation (details supplied) suggesting that the Government's overseas aid programme should be hived off and given to a new semi-State body; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17791/01]

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 at the Department of Foreign Affairs with special responsibility for overseas development assistance and human rights, Deputy O'Donnell. The review 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 into the world economy of developing countries.

The establishment of this review process reflects the reality that the Government's planned four-fold 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 review committee held its inaugural meeting on 13 February. Since then it has had seven further meetings. In addition, a number of sub-groups are actively engaged in advancing the work of the review committee in relation to specific areas of consideration.

Through a series of oral presentations, the review committee has considered the views of the Ireland Aid Advisory Committee, the National Committee for Development Education and the Agency for Personal Service Overseas. It has also had meetings with Irish NGOs and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs as part of its ongoing consultative process. Over 220 written submissions have been received. Submissions have ranged in scope from full overviews of the aid programme to sectoral inputs and letters raising individual concerns. These are being actively considered, as befits the Government's commitment to a meaningful expansion of the Ireland Aid programme.

The review process will also seek to create greater public ownership of the Ireland Aid programme and greater public identification with its objectives and achievements. It 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.

It is intended that the review committee will make a number of key recommendations for consideration by the Government. These will, under the review's terms of reference, relate, inter 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.

In addition to considering those issues, the review committee will also make recommendations on the management and organisational structures which will be required to ensure that the Ireland Aid programme expands in the most effective and accountable manner. This will include the option and implications of establishing a new body as proposed in the submission to the review committee by the organisation under reference.

The Government stands ready to consider all options and their implications following due examination by the Ireland Aid Review Committee. This consideration will take place in the light of the report which the review committee has been mandated by the Government to prepare precisely for that purpose. It would not be appropriate for me to impair the review committee's deliberations nor to pre-empt its outcome by premature comment on particular matters. Suffice it to say, the Government will give full consideration to all of the relevant issues once the Ireland Aid Review Committee has completed its work, as is anticipated, at the end of the summer.
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