Vol. 567 No. 7
49 Mr. Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the role the Government intends to take in persuading the World Bank to take a more ambitious approach in dealing with the HIPC debt burden, with reference to the commitment to promote the Government's international debt relief policy given at the lecture to the World Bank on 13 March 2003; and the role he can provide to promote governmental policy in this area. [10653/03]
In July 2002, my Department and the Department of Finance published a joint debt strategy. The strategy examined the effectiveness of the World Bank-IMF enhanced heavily indebted poor countries initiative, the current international response to the problem of the unsustainable debt burden on many of the world's poorest countries.
The strategy concluded that the HIPC was not delivering a sustainable exit from the debt treadmill. It called for reforms to the way in which the World Bank and the IMF assessed levels of debt sustainability. It also indicated that the Government believed total debt cancellation to be a politically acceptable objective and one that it would support. The strategy made clear that debt cancellation would have to be funded through additional donor contributions and not from the existing resources of the IMF and the World Bank. Debt cancellation would also have to be closely linked with good governance and sound economic management.
Since the publication of the debt strategy, the Government has promoted its conclusions and objectives at the World Bank, the IMF and in discussions with other donors both at the UN and in the OECD. I conveyed our views on debt directly to the President of the World Bank during his visit to Ireland in January 2003. The debt strategy was also highlighted by the Taoiseach in his address to the bank in March 2003.
In April 2003, Government representatives attended the spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington for detailed discussions with senior officials from these institutions on the issues raised in our debt strategy. In May 2003, the Government was also represented at a meeting of the finance ministers of the heavily indebted poor countries organised by Debt Relief International, an intergovernmental organisation supported by Ireland. This meeting included a technical debate between donors, including Ireland, the HIPC finance ministers, the World Bank and the IMF on the problems of debt sustainability based on a paper prepared by the Bank.
In May, the Government was represented at the annual World Bank conference on development economics to participate in a panel discussion on the issue of human development indicators and debt sustainability which was based on many of the ideas promoted in our debt strategy. Ireland also participated in a meeting of European NGOs devoted to development financing issues, including debt sustainability.
