Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 June 2013
228. Deputy Andrew Doyle asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will outline Ireland's recent interaction with the World Food Programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31184/13]
View answerThe WFP is Ireland's main humanitarian partner. It is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide and, on average, provides food assistance to more than 90 million people in 70 countries every year. Ireland has consistently been one of the WFP's most generous donors and key partners, being the twenty-fourth highest contributor of 133 donors from 2009 to date.
Ireland’s contributions to the WFP are made up of an annual core contribution from my Department which amounted to just under €10 million in 2012, and support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, through the Irish Aid programme, for the WFP's response to specific humanitarian emergencies. In 2012, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade provided humanitarian funding in support of the WFP's activities in Chad, Syria and the Sahel region in West Africa. In addition, funding was provided to support the operation of the UN's Humanitarian Air Service, which is managed by the WFP. To date in 2013, €3.25 million in humanitarian funding for the WFP has already been approved by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. My Department’s contribution of €9.96m will be paid in Q3 of this year.
Ireland was most recently a member of the Executive Board of the WFP for a one-year period in 2011. The Board provides an opportunity for UN Member States such as Ireland to oversee WFP's humanitarian and development food aid activities, with three meetings each year at WFP’s headquarters in Rome. When not a Board member, my Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade attend in an observer capacity and contribute to the Board's work with our EU partners. Most recently during our Presidency of the EU, we guided this EU position by coordinating the views of the other Member States and the European Commission for presentation at the Board meeting.
As a sign of our commitment to the WFP, I was pleased in April of this year to co-sign with Minister Joe Costello T.D. a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) between Ireland and the WFP. This SPA is a bilateral agreement between us as the donor country and the WFP setting out:
- Shared objectives in the area of humanitarian emergencies;
- Multi-annual financial contributions. In this regard my Department has committed to contributing minimum €7m in core funding each year from 2013 to 2015. In addition, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has committed to continue to make available funding on a case by case basis in response to humanitarian crises;
- Management, reporting and evaluation of the contributions.
In addition and unrelated to our contributions, the WFP has identified Ireland and Irish companies as potential suppliers for the products which it procures on an annual basis. My Department and Enterprise Ireland are working to pursue these opportunities.
