Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 February 2012
64 Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when it is next envisaged that the Oireachtas will receive a formal report about Ireland’s contribution to achieving the millennium development goals, MDGs, as was previously done in 2004; if he will provide the metrics by which Ireland’s contribution to achieving the MDGs is being measured; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10450/12]
View answerThe Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed by world leaders at the United Nations in 2000 as the framework for international development policy up to 2015. They provide a clearly measurable way to track progress in the fight against global poverty. The Goals are central to Ireland's overseas development programme, and to the Government's development policy. On a global level, progress towards meeting the MDGs is tracked by the United Nations, which reports annually on progress by developing countries in meeting each of the eight Goals, as well as on ODA flows from donor to developing countries, including from Ireland. I am firmly committed to keeping the Oireachtas, as well as the general public, fully informed of the important contribution that Ireland's ODA programme makes to the achievement of the MDGs. Both the Tánaiste and my predecessor as Minister of State for Trade and Development, Jan O'Sullivan T.D. have met the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Joint Committee on European Affairs over the past year and have briefed them in detail on the work of Irish Aid. I look forward to meeting and engaging with the Committees in the near future.
The Irish Aid annual reports, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas library and on the Irish Aid website, provide a detailed overview of the Government's contribution to the achievement of the MDGs, and on the results being achieved by the aid programme. In addition, in preparation for the MDG Review Summit in New York in September 2010, Irish Aid published a series of Fact Sheets which outlined Ireland's work in support of each of the eight MDGs and the challenges remaining to achieve each Goal by 2015. I would hope that we will be in a position to produce a similar set of Fact Sheets in advance of the next MDG Review Summit, which is scheduled to take place in September 2013.
The ongoing Review of the 2006 White Paper on Irish Aid provides a major opportunity to assess in detail how our ODA programme is contributing to eradicating poverty, hunger and exclusion, as well as to consider how effectively we are communicating the results of our work to the wider public. We are consulting widely in the review process, with the public, the Oireachtas, civil society and our partner countries. I would very much welcome the Deputy's engagement with and input into the process.
