Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 November 2012
175. Deputy Simon Harris asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide details of all countries whose Governments receive overseas aid from Ireland; the amount of aid each of these Governments received in 2011 and to date in 2012 from the Irish State; the specific purposes of aid funding provided to each of these countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52476/12]
View answerIreland’s aid programme prioritises the fight against global poverty and hunger. The programme is central to our foreign policy, has an enviable international reputation and enjoys consistently high levels of public and political support.
In 2011 Ireland provided €657 million to Official Development Assistance (ODA). This funding was directed to development programmes and to providing life saving emergency humanitarian assistance in over eighty of the world’s least developed countries. The majority of this assistance was delivered through trusted partners - the UN system, International Development Organisations and Non Governmental Organisations and Irish Missionary Organisations.
Ireland also has long term, strategic development partnership programmes with a small number of developing countries, called Programme Countries, namely; Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia in sub-Saharan Africa, and Timor Leste and Vietnam in Asia. Timor Leste will cease to be a Programme Country in 2013. In these countries we aim to build government capacities to deliver the essential services that their populations need – mainly in the areas of health, education and food security. We also work in cross cutting sectors such as governance, gender equality, the environment and HIV and Aids, building systems of accountability that will ensure lasting development results.
In Programme Countries, which are at the very core of our aid programme, Ireland seeks to shape and influence development in a way which will ensure that development assistance as a concept will be obsolete within a generation. We are witnessing human progress and growth rates in our Programme Countries and indeed in Africa, which would have been considered impossible only 10 years ago. There is, of course, much more to be achieved and there is still an enormous burden of poverty, but real and tangible progress is being made. Ireland has played it’s part in this positive change.
In 2011 Programme Countries received approximately €180 million of which two thirds was delivered through Government systems at national, regional and local level. Comprehensive details of how Ireland’s total ODA, including this funding, was spent is available in the Irish Aid Annual Report. I am making arrangements for the 2011 Report to be sent to the Deputy. For 2012 we have allocated €178 million to Programme Countries and most of this has been disbursed. The full details of all expenditure will be available in the 2012 Annual Report which will be published in the New Year.
The Government is proud of our aid programme and its achievements. We are determined to maintain and build on its high international reputation, and ensure it continues to build the foundation of real change, future prosperity and well being in the lives of many of the world’s poorest people.
