Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 December 2009
51 Deputy Noel J. Coonan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the amount of the overseas development aid spent on combating HIV and AIDS in 2008 and to date in 2009; the amount budgeted for HIV and AIDS in 2010; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46648/09]
View answerAccording to recent UN figures over 33 million people are living with HIV, with approximately 2.5 million becoming newly infected and over 2 million people dying of AIDS related illnesses annually. Sub-Saharan Africa, where Ireland's development work is predominantly focused, continues to be the most severely affected region in the world and is home to over 22 million people living with HIV or approximately 68 percent of the global total. AIDS remains the primary cause of death in Africa.
Ireland has an excellent international reputation for our work in the fight against HIV, which has destroyed the lives of so many millions of men, women and children. Ireland supports the fight against HIV and AIDS in Africa through focussed and evidence based approaches to ensure our support reaches those most at need. These include district programmes offering HIV treatment to communities such as that in remote mountain areas of Lesotho, national programmes such as our work with the Government of Mozambique to increase the availability of antiretroviral drugs and our work with international public-private partnerships such as the Clinton Foundation. We also support cutting edge research initiatives in the areas of vaccine development and the development of new prevention tools. We invest in empowering women and girls to protect themselves against infection. Our way of working is saving lives.
In 2008 Irish Aid spent approximately €148 million on HIV and communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria which are also affected by HIV prevalence. Our expected spend in 2009 is €114 million. Despite the current challenging budgetary situation, the Government will continue to give sustained priority to combating HIV and AIDS when the Irish Aid programme allocations for 2010 are made in the coming weeks.
