Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 February 2013
24. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will outline the matters which were discussed when he met Bill Gates recently; and if there are any new partnerships between Irish Aid or Irish Aid agencies and the Bill and the Melinda Gates Foundation expected. [8846/13]
View answerBill Gates, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has made an enormous contribution to improving the lives of some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. I have a deep respect for his successes in business and innovation, and his personal commitment to ending poverty, hunger and disease in the world. Mr. Gates visited Dublin on 23 January and I held a breakfast meeting with him, along with my colleague, Minister of State for Trade and Development, Mr. Joe Costello, T.D.
We and the Gates Foundation have strong shared interests in global development, in particular in tackling the challenges of hunger, health and childhood and maternal mortality. During our meeting we discussed development aid priorities for Ireland’s EU Presidency, including the negotiations on the development budget of the European Union. We also discussed how we can work together, with our partners internationally, to help shape the new international development framework after 2015, the target date for the Millennium Development Goals, in order to ensure that it meets the needs of the poorest communities.
We exchanged views on our shared priorities of reducing global poverty and hunger, focusing on smallholder agriculture and improving child and maternal health. We agreed to continue to focus our efforts on addressing under-nutrition which continues to blight the lives of young children in developing countries. We agreed that building sustainable agriculture and offering better opportunities for smallholder farmers in Africa is key to reducing hunger and poverty and we will continue to work together to advance progress on these critical issues.
Through the aid programme, the Government collaborates closely with the Gates Foundation on a number of initiatives to combat diseases of poverty, including through the Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation.
No specific new partnerships were agreed at this meeting. However, we did agree that Ireland would continue to work closely with the Gates Foundation on vaccination and immunisation for poor people, with a specific focus on the complete elimination of polio globally.
