I observe the letter, principle and spirit of the new arrangements in this House. The matter you have given me permission to raise is the need for the Government to include a representative of non-governmental organisations on the Irish delegation to the UN Conference on the Environment and Development to be held in Rio de Janeiro in the first two weeks of June.
This conference is called the earth summit which is an appropriate title given what it hopes to do. It is no exaggeration to suggest that it could be the most important conference not of the year but of the decade because of what it addresses. It will attempt to address fundamental threats to the quality of the earth's environment, such as global warming with consequential risk of flooding, erosion and indeed difficulties for many nations in feeding their population. Depletion of the ozone layer will be discussed together with a number of other issues, such as bio diversification.
Many developing nations are afraid that the theme of this conference will be the protection of the environment as it is now following its exploitation by the rich north often at their expense. We could be accused of trying to protect ourselves at their expense from the damage our excessive self-indulgence has caused to the earth's environment.
Arrangements will have to be made — as I am sure Members will agree — to ensure that the Third World does not end up paying for our excesses. It would be a considerable disaster if it did which is where the other side of this conference comes in. The conference is not just about the environment but about development and in particular the development of those countries that remain undeveloped. Ireland remains under-developed relative to the rest of Europe but we are more developed than three quarters of the world.
When I talk about development here I am not debating whether Ireland will cohere and converge with the rest of Europe but whether all people in future will have the resources to feed themselves and their children, live in decent housing, avail of education health care and other minimal provisions. Many people are worried that the developed world, the north effectively, is making demands on the rest of the world which will damage its environment and guarantee the perpetual impoverishment of whole nations.
The international debt crisis of the developing world is one of the prime reasons for the frightening destruction of the rain forest. There is overwhelming pressure on developing countries to find hard currency to pay off the debt they were encouraged to incur in the days of a different economic orthodoxy. They were encouraged to borrow when real interest rates were negative but when rates turned positive, debt became a crushing burden. The generation of cash crops causing destruction in the rain forest began in response to the north's demand for those products and for repayment of debt in hard currency. To repay state banks and private institutions in the north some of the world's most precious resources have been destroyed.
With issues of development tangled up in the environment question it comes as a surprise that Ireland's delegation will not have any representation from the organisations most vocal in educating the Irish public about the devastation of the environment of the developing world. We will be represented by the Taoiseach, the Minister of the Environment and possibly the Minister for Foreign Affairs, an impressive testament to the priority awarded this conference by the State. It would be more impressive, however, if the delegation included representatives of organisations which Government Ministers at other times are prepared to praise to the skies.
Non-governmental organisations have educated the public and raised resources here to fight these issues and the Irish are in proportion to GNP the most generous country giving voluntary aid to the developing world. We have the least generous Government perhaps but the most generous people. Their achievement is unquestionable and it is reasonable to ask the Government, why they leave out Irish non-governmental development organisations who have contributed enormously to the education of the Irish public and who have worked effectively with Government with an extraordinary degree of responsibility? One can only conclude that the Government have decided they know best on this issue and need none of the advice, expertise and assistance of the NGO.
Apart from the quality and importance of the work of the NGO and their historical contributions here and overseas, there is the question of the seriousness of this Government's vaunted commitment to transparency. Why do they not want to share their secrets, views, positions and indeed their delegation with representatives of non-governmental organisations? Why can eight other members of the European Community include representatives of non-governmental organisations while our Government rigorously proclaiming their transparency, exclude them? I invite the Minister to give a reason and since I do not believe it will be a convincing one, can he at this stage allow one of the 12 person delegation to be nominated by a vital force in Irish people's growing awareness of the link between environment and development?
