Four years ago when the Taoiseach stood before the international community at the United Nations Millennium Summit, he did more than make a firm commitment that Ireland would meet the target of 0.7% of GNP for overseas development aid by 2007.
In his address to the Millennium Summit, the Taoiseach also outlined the need for aid and the reason wealthy countries like Ireland must work to end human poverty, illness and suffering. He referred to the appalling situation that sees over 1 billion people living on less than $1 a day, and 250 million children under the age of 14 forced to work to keep body and soul together. However, most importantly, he put the commitment that his Government was making to meet the target for aid in a historical context that struck a chord with every Irish person. He called to mind the time of the Famine in Ireland, and juxtaposed those dark days with our new position of growth and prosperity at the heart of the European Union.
Speaking at the summit, the Taoiseach was clear and unequivocal. He stated:
Ireland's current prosperity places a particular responsibility on our shoulders . . . Our history should make us generous . . . On behalf of the Government and people of Ireland, I wish in this forum publicly to make a commitment to fully meeting the United Nations target of spending 0.7% of GNP on Official Development Assistance . . . We will reach the UN target by the end of 2007.
Echoing these sentiments, the then PD Minister of State with responsibility for overseas aid said of the decision that "our economic success made it imperative." Reporting on this promise, a commentator wrote in one of our national newspapers that sometimes undertakings are given in such solemn circumstances and on matters of such gravity that to break them would be unthinkable. Let us think the unthinkable. It is precisely this promise made at this forum and before the international community which has become the latest casualty of this Government's selfish short-sightedness. At the time this commitment was made, Ireland was jockeying for a temporary position on the UN Security Council which was granted one month after the promise on aid was declared. It would be unthinkable if the aid commitment had been given with one eye on this council seat.
Concern about the priority this Government was giving to meeting the target for aid has been widespread for some time. Even though the commitment was reiterated many times, including in the joint programme for Government agreed between Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats and at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, fault lines soon appeared in the Taoiseach's commitment to honour his promise. The cut in aid of €32 million in 2002 was a bad start for the Government. This was followed by a consistent under-investment in overseas aid so that for 2002 only 0.39% of gross national product, GNP, was devoted to aid, far below the interim target of 0.45% promised only two years earlier. There was only a very slight improvement in 2003 to 0.4%, leading the OECD to express concern regarding the likelihood of Ireland meeting the 2007 target.
The United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 was the largest gathering of world leaders to take place. The most important outcome of this summit was the unanimous adoption of the Millennium Declaration. That confirmed that all signatories would "spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected". The millennium development goals commit the international community to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV-AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development. Moreover, the goals set timeframes for this work to be done, and we have only a little more than ten years to realise these aims. However, without a solid commitment from countries such as Ireland to keep the promises they have made on aid, these goals will not be reached.
Overseas development aid is one of the most fundamentally important ways in which wealthy countries such as Ireland can assist those which need help, and aid has a proven track record in improving global health and welfare. For example, from the late 1960s, more than $100 million was spent tackling smallpox with the result that the disease was eradicated within ten years. Additionally, as Oxfam has pointed out in a report on aid published yesterday, many of our European neighbours benefited from a generous aid package after the Second World War that amounted to $75 billion in today's terms.
Aid helps to rebuild countries ravaged by war, puts millions of children through school, tackles infant and maternal mortality and fights the spread of HIV-AIDS. Last week, on world AIDS day, we heard that more than 8,000 people die every day from AIDS. Obviously, the problems of the world exist on a global scale and so much more needs to be done, yet even the revised lower target for aid will not be reached. During the recent Estimates speeches, the Minister for Finance withdrew the Government commitment to meet the UN target on aid. A new lower target of 0.5% to be reached by 2007 was set. However, it has since been confirmed that the Government will only reach the figure of 0.43% by 2007, signalling an even more dramatic U-turn on this issue.
The recent figures released by the Government for the next three years' spending on official development aid were €535 million in 2005, €600 million in 2006 and €655 million in 2007. However, the figures announced in last week's budget were €122 billion in 2004, €132 billion in 2005, €142 billion in 2006 and €153 billion in 2007. This illustrates that the 2007 figure will be 0.43% of GNP, €100 million short of the figure promised by the Minister for Finance in his Estimates only two or three weeks ago. How wealthy must we be before we make good our repeated promises on overseas development aid?
Meeting our promise to reach the UN target of 0.7% of GNP for ODA by 2007 is the best thing we can do to address hunger, poverty and human suffering. For this reason, Fine Gael calls on the Government to introduce legislation that would place a statutory obligation on the Government to allocate a sum of 0.7% of GNP from the Exchequer towards ODA on an annual basis.
If we are serious about our aid commitments, then we should be prepared to back up these commitments with legislation. Setting aside a fixed percentage of GNP for a specific purpose is not a new concept, and what Fine Gael is calling for is already in place in a number of other areas. Most recently, the national pension reserve fund was established and, under the legislation that underpins this fund, a set amount of 1% of GNP is automatically diverted from the Exchequer annually. This does not require Dáil approval on an annual basis as the amounts are set out in the legislation.
By bringing forward an overseas development aid Bill and specifying that a sum of 0.7% of GNP would be allocated to aid from the Exchequer each year, the Government could copperfasten Ireland's commitment to meeting its international responsibilities. Only the Government can introduce legislation of this type as it would be classified as a money Bill and would not be accepted from Opposition parties in Private Members' time.
In 2001, one year after the Taoiseach had made the commitment to meet the 0.7% target, in his address to the Argentine Council for International Relations he stated: "Ireland is putting its money where its mouth is." Now it seems the commitment to meet the aid target by 2007 was an empty one. However, the Government still has the chance to live up to its word on this important issue, and it can do this by legislating for aid as called for in this motion.
I can predict, with a great degree of certainty, some of the points Government speakers will make regarding Ireland's contribution to ODA. The amount of aid has increased, progress is being made in the countries that are targeted for Irish aid and more money is being devoted to aid than at any other time. However, it is disingenuous in the extreme to fail to recognise that in recent years we have seen the most radical expansion of our economy. We have at our command a greater amount of accumulated wealth than at any other time in the history of the State. It was in the context of Ireland's success and wealth that a promise on ODA was made. In 2000, it seemed we had the will and the resources to make and keep this promise. Now, it appears that only the resources are available and the will has vanished.
The Government speakers will also attempt to distract from this broken promise on aid by pouring scorn on what previous Governments achieved in times when resources were much scarcer than they are now. Between 1994 and 1997, ODA increased by more than 60%. Fine Gael has always been committed to the importance of overseas assistance. Five years ago, before the Taoiseach made his commitment at the United Nations, Fine Gael called for the UN target to be met and set out proposals on how this could be achieved through legislation.
In failing to meet the promise made in 2000, the Government has used every excuse it could think of. It has been suggested that aid agencies cannot spend the money allocated. However, given the volume of work to be done, we know this is not the case. Moreover, the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs was firmly told by the agencies that they could spend the promised funding. It has been suggested that because the economy has grown at such a pace, the amount of money to be allocated is increasing at too fast a rate. Given that if we were to meet the UN target we would still hold 99.3% of our GNP, this excuse would be laughable if this matter was not so serious.
The Government's stance on the issue of overseas development aid could have served as a beacon to other countries to follow our example. Instead, we have abandoned the promise made to the poorest of the world. This should be and is a matter of shame and embarrassment on an international scale. The United Nations target of setting aside 0.7% of income for aid has been in place for decades. In 1970, almost 35 years ago, the G8 countries agreed to meet this target but, since then, none of them have kept their word on aid. Four years ago, Ireland joined these countries in pledging to meet the target on aid but, three weeks ago, Ireland joined them in reneging on the promises we made.